L'uomo che inseguiva i desideri Phaedra Patrick translated by Claudia Marseguerra

Sometimes we don't entirely know our partner, also when we spend with him/her an entire life.
The main theme of the beautiful book by Phaedra Patrick   L'uomo che inseguiva i desideri translated by Claudia Marseguerra, in english The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper  focuses on this aspect of the existence of a couple.

Well, it's shocking when, widow, after a year from the departure of his beloved wife Miriam, that may 15th (for us living in Gubbio the big feast of I Ceri, let me add this little note) mr. Pepper, a blacksmith in pension deciding to throw away some personal items of his wife, discovers a beautiful gold bracelet with various pendants, eight in total, speaking of a precious past completely unknown for him, of his wife.
Boring and monotonous life, the one Arthur spent with his wife per decades; yes it hasn't been exactly an exciting life, but a plain, tranquil existence with the arrival of two children, Lucy and Dan, now grown ups and independent.

Arthur, after the death of his wife, follows a routine made by the same  gestures everyday; maybe for keeping under control himself, his mind, his pain, his sufferance.

But that day he found that precious, beautiful bracelet and it will change his life forever.

Miriam decided to keep him out from an important section of her life: the most exciting one. To him it was unthinkable at first, and he thought that maybe he didn't know the person close to him considering all, but this gold bracelet plenty of meanings will also be a reason for a new re-born; for re-starting to live, going out, visiting places, discovering new environments, situations and people; it was positive for Arthur, 69 years, after a lot of time spent at home.

Miriam before to meet Arthur, becoming a perfect housewife didn't stay close to her house; she traveled in India for work, she returned, she knew a writer; she had friends in Paris where she lived for some while; she lived another important love-story. She was a happy girl and she lived her first part of her life with excitement, leaving her hidden memories in that gold bracelet.

Miriam has always been a loyal wife and the hidden part of her life, maybe kept secret because it was a distant chapter of her existence, a chapter completely closed and precious and living in the present and projected in the future, she didn't mind of telling anything to anyone anymore.

Arthur in the while will meet along this trip in various localities diversified people; some of them stressed because of their life; other insecure about their future and their choices; other ones helpful, considering the misadventures he lived in various occasions.

Arthur will reconstruct the existence of his wife thanks also to the help of his two children, more close now to their dad,  Bernadette, the lady living close to him, Nathan, Bernadette's son.

Written with irony, enchantment, go for it, if you search for a book in grade to transport you in a lot of places, and where past and present, at the end will create an harmonic portrait of  the life of a lady.

I thank Garzanti for the italian copy of this book.

Pictures from the author's website:

http://www.phaedra-patrick.com/

Anna Maria Polidori