El jardí dels Finzi-Contini

In the city of Ferrara, when the Jewish community is threatened by the anti-Semitism of the fascist government, the Finzi-Continis - a Jewish family of ancestry - lead a secluded life in a luxurious villa, surrounded by a majestic garden. Alberto and his sister Micòl, the children of the family, decide to invite some friends to their house, after many of them have been expelled from the city's tennis club. The protagonist of the story, a young middle-class Jew, thus gains access to this hermetic community -apparently immune to racial laws-, in whose meetings politics and private life converge, and love blossoms between the boy and the young Micòl . However, the course of history seems to drag them towards a dire destiny and lead them to plunge into the abyss that opens under their feet. Few 20th-century Italian novels have held such a special place in readers' hearts as The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, a moving story that intertwines the individual and collective fate of Italy at the dawn of World War II.