Den Himmel stürmen

Giordano definitely knows how to write and how to pull you into this story of love, friendship and ideals, in southern Italy. There is the secrecy and dizziness of young love, teenage experiments of lust and tragedies, and the constant search for meaning and one's truth, taking shape in religion and environmental fundamentalism. Yet the main characters were really hard to like. Bern, a stand-in for [b:The Baron in the Trees 9804 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344432724s/9804.jpg 865256], the supposed romantic hero and driver of most action, was so uncompromising in his convictions that it made him unattractive. And Teresa, the narrator and his counterpart, was too passive, seemingly only following other people's wishes.I rolled my eyes a bit at the boys' escapades with Violalibera, and the added unnecessary jealousies between the circle of friends. But I still enjoyed lots of it.