Il Corvo by Cord Riechelmann

I think I was 9-10 years when it happened. Ubaldo the owner of the ex bar of our area, Morena, found a nest of jays. There were and still there are, two suggestive tables, close to the bar located under a friendly and beautiful tree. We all adored spending time there, eating ice-creams, chatting, and enjoying the beautiful stars in the sky.

It was there that Ubaldo introduced to adults and children these little animals. We all fell in love for them and everyday we spent time with these intelligent birds all excited and happy for this novelty. Adults were excited as well, because jays are known for being wild animals and seeing how friendly and nice they were it was surprising.

When they became more adults, Ubaldo shared some of them with us: I was happy and thrilled with my Lucrezia, as I baptized her. No idea if it was a male or a female, I confess; it slept in the house during the night, the day she was set free and she enjoyed to staying most of the time in our lime tree;  she ate some meat everyday, and it was absolutely one of the most intelligent creatures I have every had. When she was outside, if I called her, promptly reached the balcony of the window-kitchen. She was adorable.

Then, I went to Rome for passing some days of vacation with my brother and family and once returned home, horror! my cat Camilla had killed her. To me it was a devastation. 

I understood that what we did was wonderful, because we tamed a wild animal, but at the same time we left it unprotected against the attacks  of other animals and with too much trust and innocence. 

In my late 20s I met some onlin

e friends fixated with The Crow, tv series, movie with Brandon Lee.

Crows, and also all the rest of this diversified world that involves this animal has always been part of my existence, living also in a countryside. 

I read so Il Corv

o by Cord Riechelmann with great pleasure. Foreword by Telmo Pievani, published by Marsilio, this one is the story of an intelligent animal, sometimes considered a God, for his intelligence, because sly, different from all the other animals, sometimes considered a symbol of death, an exaltation presented also in the cinema unfortunately, because crows eat also carcasses of dead animals; connection between an animal close to dying and a crow close to it waiting for the departure has always been seen as a sign of the power existing in this animal and the special connection that he has with death.

Inuit, Tiglit, celebrate the crow with fascinating legends, but also in the Bible the first animal Moses asked to going out for seeing if the situation was back to the normality was a crow.

Crows, studied confirmed, counts till 7; they are animals in grade of using their brain for deciding which is the best situation to adopt when there are various options and this one is a human attitude; someone noticed that in big cities for opening walnuts they put them in streets where there are semaphors; when it is red it's perfect; cars will pass on the walnuts, opening the fruits. Later they will eat it. Attracted by brilliant objects, it is true that sometimes they can steal them, but it is also true that if they are important, these objects are visibly displayed in their nest so that the owner, I want to think this, can discover them with simplicity. They're intelligent animals.

They are friendly with humans. I remember when once a magpie, was our alarm clock; she loved to knocking in the bedroom's windows for saying us ciao every morning but also in the afternoon.

This book, friendly, intelligent, will let you explore an animal sometimes misunderstood, and treated pretty bad by hunters and peopl, giving back him, all the dignity that deserves.

The last section is dedicated at the most common crows that can be found in the world. An animal this one strickly connected with men and that will always follow him wherever he will go.

Highly recommended.

I thank Marsilio for the physical copy of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori