The Fragrance of the Great Summer

Reggio Calabria, a summer both ordinary and unique at the same time. Louise’s memories take her back in time, to the summer spent in the company of her grandfather in a country house, far from the war. The smell of freshly cut grass and of hung laundry, the calls of the great tits and the red of the poppies emerge from her memory. Emerging even more from her memory is him, Grandpa Leòn. A great big man with a head full of eccentric but useful ideas, and of dreams to accomplish. Grandpa Leòn is one of those people who don’t want to change the world, but – more simply – “experience it and listen to its breathing”. Il profumo della grande estate (the fragrance of the great summer) was written and illustrated by Thibault Prugne. The story, simple but profound, retraces the summer that little Louise, with her big eyes and smile constantly on her lips, spent living in her grandfather’s home. A formative time, as much for the protagonist as for those who read her essential, unvarnished memoir, which nonetheless is able to give value to everything around us. Indeed, it is under that roof that the protagonist discovers love, reflects on the war, on why people go through life without ever stopping, perhaps sitting to admire the butterflies on a swing made from a chair dangling from a great oak. And it is under this great oak that we meet her a few years later, grown up and in love, talking with her grandfather.  

Il profumo della grande estate
di Thibault Prugne
Rizzoli, 2023