Elsa Zambonini Durul

An Investigation Steeped in Mystery, Set Against the Enchantment of Venice
In the magical atmosphere of contemporary Venice- and, at times, in Paris-unfolds the moving love story between Federica and Leonardo.
The lagoon city becomes the magnificent stage for the intertwined destinies of three generations of women, each lost in her own way.
Aurora, consumed by selfishness, amorality, and cruelty, devastates everyone around her-her parents, her husband, and above all, her daughter.
Loredana, fragile and adrift, flees into a reckless life that leads her from the streets to addiction and beyond. Once a victim of her mother’s cruelty and her partner’s betrayal, she in turn becomes the tormentor of her own child, whom she abandons as a baby.
Only when she comes of age does Federica discover that the mother she believed dead is still alive. To find her, she must embark on a journey filled with secrets, deceptions, and painful truths-helped by Leonardo, a nearly graduated medical student who was himself abandoned as a child by his father.
Victim of a mother’s absence, Federica now faces a choice: to repeat the cruelty that has haunted her family for generations, or to break the cycle and redeem them all through courage, forgiveness, and love.