Elena Varvello esplora l'intricata rete di relazioni umane e gli angoli ombrosi della psiche nelle sue avvincenti narrazioni. Il suo stile distintivo è caratterizzato da una cruda onestà e da un'acuta intuizione delle motivazioni che spingono i suoi personaggi. Attraverso le sue storie, si addentra in temi profondi come il senso di colpa, il desiderio e la ricerca dell'identità nel mondo contemporaneo. La prosa di Varvello immerge i lettori in trame suspense, inducendo alla riflessione sulla propria vita.
'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent. 'A beauty of a novel in which the pain and alienation of a teenage boy goes unnoticed until it is too late to halt its gripping conclusion' Kate Mayfield.
'I knew nothing, back then, of the ways in which love can show itself, of the force with which it can push us into a corner and take our breath away' 1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls. Elia Furenti is sixteen, living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness has been accepted as normal. That is until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood. But then everything starts to unravel. Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind, spending day after day plotting his revenge. A young boy is murdered, shaking the small community to its core. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods...