The Memory of Villa Freiberg
Romina Casagrande
Garzanti
Year: 2023
Pages: 352
So when, upon Rosemary’s death, local architect Elisabeth is called to create a foundation of the villa, she is ill-prepared for what she finds: a house filled with rubbish, not a trace of art. It turns out that Villa Freiberg is shrouded in secrets, like the divided Freiberg family, who found refuge in Tyrol, a no-man’s land between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Elisabeth is determined to unravel Rosemary’s past, starting with the few clues she left in a locked trunk: a gold ring and photographs of a nameless child born with a handicap. Memories of sibling love linger in the dusty rooms and lead Elisabeth to a clinic in Innsbruck, where the horrors of Aktion T4 were perpetrated in the name of a perfect race.
Rights sold:
France (Fleuve Noir)
Hungary (Európa Könyvkiadó Kft)