UNE JEUNE ITALIENNE / A YOUNG ITALIAN – FRANCK PETRUZZELLI

Information

Author:

Franck Petruzzelli

Date:

Hachette Fictions
January 2026

Author:

Additional Info

A YOUNG ITALIAN

Rights Holder: Hachette Fictions

Original Language: French

Between family secrets and broken memories, a young Italian woman navigates the torments of history. Impossible love, fragmented identity, painful transmission.

Everyone calls her Hélène, even her mother. Yet the young woman, who grew up in Andorno Micca, a small village in northern Italy, struggles to identify with this French name. It was as Elena that she learned to love, to suffer, to rebel, and to fight for what mattered to her.

In 1930, her parents left Andorno Micca and moved to France: in Mussolini's fascist Italy, work was scarce, as were individual rights. Elena and her little sister Francesca were entrusted to their grandmother Luisa, because their parents could only receive the birth allowance if they were raised in Italy.

One day in 1931, while on her way to the wash house to beat the laundry, Elena met a boy her age, Roberto. He had been taken in by his uncle and aunt because his blind parents had been taken away by the government. He dreamt of becoming an opera singer.

To combat the loneliness that surrounds them both, the children gradually form unbreakable bonds that even World War II cannot break. When Elena feels sad, angry, or lost, Roberto comfort her by singing songs in languages she does not understand.

When Roberto does not return to her at the end of the war, Elena, who has settled in Cannes with her family and become a naturalized French citizen, is overcome with unbearable doubt: what has happened to the man she loves?

Franck Petruzzelli was born in Cannes in 1978. He studied philosophy before working in tourism out of a love for travel. He then switched to adult education and now works as a consultant for a software publisher. He divides his time between Cannes and Italy.

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