Hold on to Your Morning Wishes

Original title: Al mattino stringi forte i desideri

Publication Date:

May 2018

Pages:

225

Original language and publisher

Italian | Garzanti

Territories Handled

France, Netherlands, Scandinavia, World English

Territories Sold

France (Fleuve)
Germany (Droemer Knaur)
Czech Republic (offers received)
Slovakia (offers received)

Genre

Commercial Fiction

Foreign Covers

 Cover
Fleuve

Hold on to Your Morning Wishes

Original title: Al mattino stringi forte i desideri

Synopsis

“Natascha’s novel can truly speak to your heart, her style, new and evocative is the kind that puts each word into place and strikes you. Emilia, the main character, is unforgettable! It’s been years since we read of a character such as hers. Beside her, Nicola, the little boy whose kind and sweet gestures remember us the importance of the small things in life. You’ll love it from the first page on.” — Garzanti

“An enchanting protagonist like that of ‘Amélie’. A novel that helps us see life from a new perspective.”Il Libraio

“This book causes absolute well-being.” — Marie Claire

A novel that reminds us how the beauty of life lies in the little things, the real human relations, the smiles and the eyes of the people alongside us.

Emilia stands in front of the big building. With her she has a few suitcases and her two beloved cats. After losing her job and the control of her life, she’s there to make a new start. With a new house and new tenants to get to know. But the welcome that awaits her is not what she expected.

No-one seems to pay any attention to her, hiding behind her fringe and her flat shoes, so as not to be noticed. But Emilia decides that the time has come to get rid of her insecurities. She’s tired of not being spoken to, or of cold clichés. The only way to change things is to arouse the curiosity of the people who pass in front of the notice board in the entrance hall to the building. It’s there that, every day, Emilia starts to put up a few lines, in which she writes down her sensations, her memories, her hopes. Without revealing her identity. Perhaps she’s writing so that her voice will somehow be heard. Or perhaps to bring a little joy to those who pursue life without stopping at simple things any more. There must be someone out there who loves the colour yellow like she does, remembers the child’s bicycle that seemed to fly or is afraid of lost things that are never found. There must be someone who feels the need to reply to her. But that’s not how it is.

Until the day when she finds a child’s sticker next to her note. The first sign that someone’s noticed her. She has no idea who it could have been but the clues all start to point to a child wearing a Star Wars T-shirt who always has a book in his hand and a father busy on his mobile phone. Only he can understand the importance of details. Emilia senses that he’s going to be her first friend in the apartment block, as she slowly comes closer to all the other tenants.

Although it isn’t easy to teach your heart to trust when it’s been disappointed so many times. And it isn’t easy to express your own desires and share them with others. Emilia discovers you have to hold on to them tightly to stop them flying away.

With her authentic, vivid and sensitive voice, Natascha Lusenti draws a true story of rebirth as a soothing balm for lost readers.

Marketing Information

  • English sample available.
  • For fans of Raphaëlle Giordano, Muriel Barbery and Nicolas Barreau

 

Foreign Covers

 Cover
Fleuve