Art de la joie

"The wind of his eyes takes me to him, and even if my still body resists, my hand turns back to meet his palm. In the circle of light my hand is lost in his life and I close my eyes. He lifts me from the ground, and in known gestures the enchantment of my resurrected senses, awakening to joy my nerves and veins. I had not been mistaken, Death watches me at a distance, but just to put me to the test. I must accept the danger, if only this danger has the power to give life to my senses, but calmly, without tremors of childhood." The Art of Joy is mainly the novel of a life, that of Modesta, a magnificent character born on 1 January 1900 on the slopes of Etna, Sicily. From the miserable chaos of his childhood to the chance of life that will make her the unsuscitated heiress of a degenerate family of Sicilian nobles, it is in fact to an apprenticeship of freedom that this first opens us up.