Lorenzo's journey
Lorenzo's Journey is a 2007 novel by the Italian writer Andrea Bajani .
overview
The book is about the boy Lorenzo, whom his mother had left with her partner in Italy in order to start a new life in Romania after the fall of the Iron Curtain and to earn as much money as possible as quickly as possible. After his mother's death, Lorenzo goes to Romania for the funeral. The journey turns into a search for traces of his mother and lets the narrator's injuries, which were inflicted on him in his childhood, penetrate his consciousness again. It first appeared in Italian as Andrea Bajani: Se consideri le colpe . Milano, Einaudi, 2007 (first edition ISBN 9788806187194 ) and in German in 2011 as Lorenzos Reise. in the translation by Pieke Biermann. (Munich, dtv, 2011. ISBN 978-3-423-24866-2 )
content
The story begins with Lorenzo's arrival at the airport in Bucharest . The reason for the stay in Romania is the funeral of his mother Lula. For Lorenzo, the days in this strange land turn into a journey into the past. Many years ago the little boy and his stepfather were abandoned by Lula. Lorenzo's mother wanted to achieve her professional goals in Romania. Many Italians land in Bucharest to build a future for themselves with new ideas, which is why they have relocated their headquarters abroad. Many hope for better opportunities here than at home. In this story, the Eastern Europeans do not want to gain a foothold in an economically stronger country, but rather Italian emigrants in Romania. Make big money - that was also the wish of Lorenzo's mother Lula, who wanted to try her luck with a life-size slimming egg. The mother's future plans sound promising at first. But over time Lula let out less and less and in the end nothing more. The waiting and hoping for Lula's return never ended. Uncertainty gnaws at Lorenzo like a terrible disease. Only when the already grown man is on his mother's direct tracks does he finally get clarity: Lula has failed because of her plan.
Book prices
The novel received several awards:
- Premio Super Mondello
- Premio Recanati
- 2008 Premio Brancati