Flowers Over the Inferno

She suddenly realised that saying nothing at all only ever helps the executioner, never the victim. P. 106

But more than the sins themselves, what upset her most was the effort the community put into covering up for the sinners, leaving their victims at the mercy of their tormentors, and all for the sake of preserving the unity of the village against the outside world. She thought bitterly of the pamphlets strewn around town, calling for a popular uprising against the new ski slope. There was so much activism against the “invasion,” yet nobody had lifted a finger to help these kids.

To the people of the valley the rest of the world was a foreign land full of perils and populated by incompetents and unscrupulous swindlers. Their small world embodied a perfection that ought to be preserved even at the cost of a few lives. But Teresa had seen the cracks beginning to form in that picture, showing a glimpse of a reality that was far from idyllic.

We run away from what scares or hurts us—or from what holds us captive.

Massimo studied her. Her roguish fringe, sticking out from beneath the rim of a sequined woolly hat, seemed out of place on a face that bore the signs of age and was marked by a hardness that presaged an equally difficult personality. Her bright eyes pierced through him like a pair of thrusting hands, scouring his face as if in search of some kind of proof.

She thought of the worries that had besieged her in recent days, and all of a sudden they did not seem so insurmountable. It was up to her to decide how to live the rest of her life, and there were two ways to do it: by gradually fading away or standing up to it undeterred.

We run away from what scares us or hurts us - or from what holds us captive. P. 22

He had seen how her entire squad gravitated toward her, and now he understood what caused it: her vital energy. People could feel it in her, and they were attracted to it. Teresa Battaglia had the rare gift of making those who stood by her feel stronger. Except that in his case, she also made him feel terribly inadequate.

Vedono l’inferno che abbiamo sotto i piedi, mentre noi contempliamo i fiori che crescono sul terreno.

«Forse loro vedono il mondo meglio di noi» disse, in un sussurro. «Vedono l’inferno che abbiamo sotto i piedi, mentre noi contempliamo i fiori che crescono sul terreno. Il loro passato li ha privati di un filtro che a noi invece è stato concesso.»

What a shame, you were doing so well until you came out with that pathetic apology. You know, it doesn’t hurt to be told to fuck off, every now and then,” she said.

Someone’s going to have to explain to me some day what constitutes a monster,” she said. “That’s what we like to call them, yet we can’t look away, we won’t change the channel, and that’s because we know they’re just like the rest of us: human. That’s what captivates us, the realization that a small part of them exists in every one of us.

Massimo recalled the construction site he’d seen earlier on one of the mountains, and the trees that had been cleared. Even here, far from the city, it seemed there was no peace to be had.

El valor de una existencia parecía inversamente proporcional al tiempo que había pasado sobre la faz de la tierra

era il suo lavoro, e lo faceva tanto con i morti quanto con i vivi.

She told herself it was none of her business, but then quickly dismissed her own reservations; as far as she was concerned children were everyone’s collective responsibility.

[Christ on the crucifix] before her showed neither hope nor any notion of salvation. It was a representation of torture. The christ returned her gaze with the disconsolate look of those who know that nobody will help them. P.

I bambini sapevano essere spietati come solo la natura poteva essere. Era la loro straordinaria spinta verso la vita a renderli tali. Sembrava un controsenso, ma per Teresa non lo era: assaporavano ogni attimo come se fosse la più incredibile delle avventure e non potevano permettersi di sciupare il tempo dietro a formalismi sterili che nemmeno comprendevano. Erano vivi. Perciò, che altro dovevano fare? Vivevano.

La soledad envolvía a Teresa igual que un vestido demasiado ajustado, un corsé de otra época, que en público le hacía enderezar la espalda, pero que en la intimidad le robaba la respiración. Había aprendido a tratarla como un antídoto contra el veneno; la absorbía en pequeñas dosis, todos los días. No la evitaba, no buscaba distracciones; permanecía quieta y se dejaba morder por ella. De esa forma, su alma había aprendido a producir los anticuerpos y había dejado de morir por su causa.