Als mein Vater in den Strassen von Turin verschwand

A young woman embarks on the trail of her deceased father, who led a secret second life of which the daughter knew nothing. Through writing, she approaches this stranger and simultaneously sheds light on the dark corners of Italian history. When her father dies, Marta Barone is not yet thirty years old. Her mother finds a file with documents related to a trial in which he was accused of being a member of a left-wing radical movement. And suddenly, nothing is as it once was: Who was her father really? This foreign young man, Leonardo, who always stood on the side of the defeated, the working-class doctor who fought where there was someone to save, and who was sentenced to prison as a member of a far-left group? Why had he never talked to her, his daughter, about it? Testimonies, memories, and revelations slowly come together to form a delicate portrait of a contradictory person who lived in a tumultuous time. Meanwhile, the streets of Turin serve as the backdrop for the daily political struggle. Marta Barone's novel is an urgent attempt to understand: Who were these militant communists? What did they believe in? And what remains of their struggle a generation later? This autofictional debut is an extraordinary testimony of the times and a moving exploration of the father's secret life.