The Memory of Villa Freiberg
Romina Casagrande
Garzanti
Year: 2023
Pages: 352
The infamously stingy Rosemary Severini lived by herself in Villa Freiberg until the day she died. With no friends or family, the villagers could only gossip about her wealthy grandfather’s rumoured priceless art collection.
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 and not a trace of art. Elisabeth discovers 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)