May in Palermo. A story for Francesca Morvillo

We are in the 1980s. Laura goes to high school in Palermo and every morning, at the bar, sees a kind and elegant woman. She knows who she is and would like to shake her hand, but the woman is under escort: she's magistrate Francesca Morvillo. And she's also the wife of judge Giovanni Falcone, with whom she shared ideals and goals. Thirty years have gone by from the death of the only woman magistrate victim of the Sicilian mafia, yet too little has been written about it, and her story must be told. Unobtrusive, decisive and reserved, she remained at her husband's side to the end and she too, just like Falcone, was a true innovator through her role as substitute attorney at the Juvenile Court in Palermo. Her figure, portrayed by Gilda Terranova in occasion of the 30th anniversary commemorating these mafia murders, stands out as firm, amiable and brave in this story narrated through the eyes of an adolescent from Palermo during the year of the Maxi Trial – years when even choosing the way to go back home could mean life or death. A tribute to a woman who chose to give up most of her personal freedom and live under escort in order to do her job to the end, and to fight the Sicilian mafia together with her husband. A young woman who “at 46 years of age, will remain eternally young, as it happens to those who die too early.” A book suitable to young readers, to teach them, through simple, delicate and modern narrative language, about a recent historical period that may not be well known to them.  

Maggio a Palermo. Una storia per Francesca Morvillo (May in Palermo. A story for Francesca Morvillo)
by Gilda Terranova
Einaudi Ragazzi, 2022