Der grösstmögliche Beweis für Liebe

The couple Paul and Franca Salamun initiates a quiet conspiracy of love before their self-determined death. Initially, only their sons and their wives are let in on the secret. Their son Luca Salamun, a composer and father of a nine-year-old child, delves into the past. After nearly severing ties with his parents years ago, he now immerses himself more intensely in the situation of his father, a bridge master and mathematician, who at 75 decided not to undergo surgery after a cancer diagnosis. Luca also tries to understand his mother, who carries a secret she is unwilling to reveal. What thoughts precede their chosen double death? And how do the survivors react? Paul Salamun reflects on his life during a final hike in the wintry Engadin with his wife Franca. The contract in bridge, where the player must make twelve tricks, represents a goal in his mental framework. Luca hopes to grasp the motivations of Paul and Franca so he can one day explain to his daughter what happened to her grandparents. To his surprise, he discovers that he himself is part of his parents' conspiracy. Divided into two dominant perspectives, that of the son Luca and the father Paul, the author approaches the decisive events like a literary game of bridge, crafting a captivating family portrait. During a dive in the Mediterranean, Luca attempts to re-understand his parents' death and give it a melody. Instead of the prelude to death in the first part of his novel, Bardola depicts the prelude to the birth of his daughter as the second act. Bardola contrasts the last hike of the parents with the journeys of Luca and the pregnant Sabine shortly before the birth of Nora. He juxtaposes Luca's desperate running during his parents' dying with contemplative runs through the Engadin landscape.