Thursday 23 May at 7pm, the Sicilian writer Dario Levantino returns to Foggia to present ‘The Judge and the Child’. The meeting, included in ‘Fuori gli Autori’, will be held in the open-air courtyard of the Natural History Museum. Conversing with the author will be the teacher Carla Bonfitto (‘Pagine d’Autore’) and the vice-president of Libera, Daniela Marcone.
‘The Judge and the Child’ (Fazi, 2024). Having arrived in heaven, Paolo Borsellino is tasked by God with solving particular and delicate cases. For a time, he will deal with those souls who, for various reasons, have left something unresolved on Earth. One day, however, a file of a case inexplicably rejected by all the other officials in heaven ends up on the desk in his office. As soon as Borsellino reads the contents of the folder, he feels faint. That soul, in fact, belongs to a child. And that child is Giuseppe Di Matteo, killed by the mafia in January 1996.
From here begins a delicate and touching story, with fairytale tones, which reconstructs the events of the judge and the boy: a journey through the clouds full of emotions and adventures in search of the serenity necessary to move forward and of a reason that can explain so much violence. In this journey for two, particularly engaging will be the meeting between the child and his horse who will be reunited in the afterlife thanks to Borsellino’s help, and will thus have the opportunity to say goodbye for the last time before saying goodbye and separating forever. A decisive meeting that will give the little one the opportunity to reconcile with the world and finally find the lost peace before saying goodbye to his judge friend and finally taking his place in heaven.
A text suitable for children that clearly illustrates, with a committed but light-hearted tone, the years that characterized the fight against the mafia and the internal dynamics of the Cosa Nostra organization, in the hope that a better world is always possible and that in the end, good always triumphs.
