Divided into three parts--fire, earth, and wind--this novel follows Walter from his rural adolescence through his adult years as he leaves his known world for the chaos and complexity of Rome. Wrestling with difficult family relationships and outgrowing childhood friendships, Walter finds himself in the end searching for a long-lost friend and the certainty he once knew.

Susanna Tamaro is the author of 10 books of fiction and nonfiction published in more than 40 countries, which include the internationally bestselling novel Follow Your Heart and Turning Home. Cinzia Sartini Blum is a professor of Italian at the University of Iowa and a translator. She is the author of The Other Modernism. Russell Scott Valentino is a professor of Russian and comparative literature at the University of Iowa. Blum and Valentino both live in Iowa City, Iowa.