Sometimes life hits us until it knocks us down. What if instead of getting up, we tried to look at the world through the eyes of those who are down? Perhaps the act of surrender can bring unexpected happiness.

Few have been able to recount male fragility without stereotypes, without prejudice, and without shame. Matteo Bussola knows how to do it with candor and humanity. In these excruciating, yet light-filled pages, a man finds the courage to desert his own existence and build a dream. In the neuropsychiatric yard, a father with his son learns to accept the wound of those he has given birth to. An elderly husband, caring for his wife suffering from Alzheimer’s, wonders what remains of a relationship when the one we love disappears, even if we can still touch him. A hikikomori who fell in love online would like to meet the one who has become so important to him, but fear of leaving imprisons him. An obedient child discovers the unexpected beauty of disappointing expectations.

Cracked, bent, defeated, yet capable of searching for meaning, of catching a glimpse of it where they would never have believed, each of these protagonists finds a personal, authentic, unashamedly honest answer to the question: “What makes a man, a man?”

“Life is not a mountain to be climbed, a train not to be missed, a goal to be hit, but it is a small room to be furnished with care. It is not a summit to be reached at all costs. It is the choice of a good place to stop.”