Chapter 48

Innocent flowers

I reread the letter: yes, it was really true. An American publishing house specifying the date by which it had to arrive asked me, Adriana Ivancich myself, to design the cover for Dante Arfelli's book, L'indifferente, soon to be published in America under the title The Unwanted.

To design the cover, we needed the book. But the book, from Ravenna, didn't come. I ordered it and every day I went to check if it had arrived. Finally one evening my mother came home with the book and, a quick reader, she finished it during the night. The next day she told me that I could not read it because it was not suitable.

But how could I do the cover if I didn't know the story, I protested. Even if it was not suitable for me, I would not have given importance to what was written, I would have tried to forget it immediately, I just had to take ideas for the cover. And since at that moment Francesca was entering the room, I asked for her help.

"I've already discussed it with Mom." Francesca said. "It's not a book for you." 

"But you could cover up, erase the words I don't have to read." 

"It's not enough. It's not a few words, and the whole story...