THE NOVEL OF MY ROOTS

THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE

THE PROMISE

In *La Promessa* (The Promise), I tell the story of Romolo Di Meo , a young shepherd from Molise who lives in a small inland village, Mastrogiovanni . His is a simple life, made of pastures, silence, slow movements, and love for Giovanna , the woman who will become his wife. Everything changes with the arrival of World War II . Romolo leaves as a soldier, but remains a shepherd at heart.
He learns to use weapons, becomes a partisan, and crosses the shattered Italy after September 8th. He hides, deserts, changes his name. He experiences the war as an ordinary man, without heroism, carrying only one thing with him: a promise made to his mother . A simple, but absolute promise: to return home alive.

And when he returns, he truly does. But he finds a changed, wounded country. Giovanna has lost a leg. His mother is no longer the same. Yet Romolo does not flee. He stays. Persistent, faithful, silent. He stays to keep that promise . The Promise is the story of a man who goes through war, loss, and hardship and still chooses the resistance of love . It is a novel that is born from a family memory and becomes a collective story.
Because the truest stories are often the ones that no one has ever written.

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WHY I WROTE THIS STORY

" I wrote The Promise to give a voice to those who resisted in silence."
Romolo is born from the stories of my grandparents, from a rural Italy that knows hard work, stubborn love, and quiet dignity. The war tears him away from the pastures, changes him, but does not break him. His strength is a promise made to his mother, which guides him even when everything around him collapses. Writing this story was a way to preserve the memory, to restore value to a South that makes no noise , but does not cease to exist.

THE PLACES OF THE PROMISE

The places in La Promessa are the ones I carry within me. There's Mastrogiovanni , the village of my childhood, where my grandparents lived. A real place, even if with an invented name. There I learned about silence, hard work, and memory. And there I imagined Romolo, the shepherd, a simple and honest man.

Then there are the pastures of Molise , the mountains battered by the wind, the transhumance routes where time moves slowly. It is from there that Romolo sets out, and it is there that he wants to return.

And then there's the war , far away, that tears him away from his land and puts him to the test. But the heart of the novel always remains there, among the daily gestures, the whispered promises, and the houses that resist. Writing The Promise was a return. A way to stay true to my places, and to the stories that inhabit them.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Romulus, Him He is the center of everything. Mastrogiovanni's shepherd, a silent man but full of dignity. He loves his flock, Giovanna, and the slow rhythm of the countryside. When the war tears him away from the land, he carries with him that promise made to his mother — and with it the desire to return, whole, even if wounded.

Giovanna, you are the light that illuminates Romolo's path. Not a woman of easy words, but with a strong heart. When everything collapses, she remains. Hurt, scarred, but still capable of loving, waiting, and giving meaning.

Romulus's mother, a silent, devoted figure, crucified by sorrow. It is for her that Romulus makes the promise. She represents the link to the past, to his roots, to human memory.

SPOILER ALERT

There's a moment in the novel when Romulus – after going through war, loss, hunger, and cold – finally returns to the village. But he's no longer the shepherd he once was. And the village, not even him, is the same.

The war has left deep wounds: his mother doesn't recognize him, his wife has lost a leg, and the sheep that once grazed freely are now just a memory. But Romolo remains. Not because he is strong. He remains because he made a promise. And in his stubborn peasant way, that promise is worth more than anything else.

BOOK FEATURES

Year: 2025
Publisher: IOD edizioni
Series: Barefoot Reporters
Pages: 264
Code: 9791280118882

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