Beneath the Mountain
Page 37
Clara . . .
I like listening to her stories, I like playing with her. Running through the meadows of Siebenhoch with a stick that makes me look like a scarecrow. But above all, I like watching her sleep. Clara sometimes smiles in her sleep and when she does that, my heart fills with hope. Her smiles chase away fear and get me one step closer to salvation. I need Clara to smile. Because that’s how fairy tales end, those that start with a and always finish with a z we call a happy ending.
* * *
I’ve written these pages for her. Because one day Annelise and I will have to tell her the truth about the Bletterbach killings. About how it was her love that saved the lives of the final protagonists in that story.
Annelise and Salinger.
* * *
“One letter, Papà?”
“The smile at the end of the rainbow, sweetheart.”
Z.
Acknowledgments
If, as many will have noticed, the Alto Adige/Südtirol described in these pages departs from the real one, the reason is simple: Beneath the Mountain is a work of fiction, and fiction, by definition, tends more to verisimilitude than to truth. I hope this hasn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. In any case, I’m sure that Clara would agree with me in stating that telling stories is always, in a way, a declaration of love.
In this regard, let me thank many (certainly not all) of the people who, with their affection and encouragement, have helped to bring the writing of this novel to fruition.
Thank you to my mother and father for always holding my hand. Thank you to Luisa and Agostino for letting me carry away the most precious thing they had. Thank you to Claudia, Michi, and Asja for Alex and all the rest. To Eleonora, Corrado, and Gabriele for adopting me. And thank you to Giannina for the bells.
Thank you to Maurizio who never turns back and Valentina who takes him fishing. Thank you to Michele, the unique, true, and inimitable. Thank you to Emanuela, Simone, and Bianca. To Caterina, Maurizio, and Sofia. To Ilaria and Luca. To Chiara and Damiano. No point adding why, you all know. A very special thank-you to Loredana, Andrea, and the first readers of the manuscript. You know who you are and how much I owe you.
Thank you to Piergiorgio Nicolazzini, who isn’t just an agent and I want him to know that. Thank you to Luca Briasco for teaching me to hold a pen (although he insists on claiming the opposite). Thank you to Francesco Colombo for turning the editing into a pleasant outing between friends. Thank you to Severino Cesari, Paolo Repetti, Raffaella Baiocchi, and the whole Stile Libero family for the kindness with which they welcomed this lost mountain dweller to the big city and for the professionalism with which they took care of the big tome he had in his rucksack.
Thank you to Dr. Christian Salaroli for the mountain blues. To Raffael and Gabriel Kostner, for being everyday examples of heroism. Thank you to the courageous men of Aiut Alpin Dolomites for inspiration, kerosene, and strudel. The good things about mountain rescue that you find in this novel I owe to them (whereas the errors and flights of fancy are entirely down to the imagination of yours truly). Thank you to Professor Fulvio Ferrari, always true to the motto: “Once a teacher, always a teacher.” And: Vergelsgot’n oltn Alois for dr Mappe unds Wörterbuach. Zum Wohl, Herr Luis! Thank you, obviously, to the Bletterbach and its sign: “Enter at your own peril.”
Finally: a gold doubloon to Alessandra for being the first to cry “Blow! Blow!”
The lines “And the day keeps on reminding me, there’s a hellhound on my trail. / Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail” are from “Hellhound on My Trail,” sung by Robert Johnson.
The line “Miles to go before I sleep” is from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” From Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost, published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.
The quotation “Are the dead restored? The books say no, the night shouts yes” is from Ask the Dust by John Fante.
About the Author
LUCA D’ANDREA lives with his family in Bolzano, Italy, where he was born in 1979. Beneath the Mountain is his first thriller. It will be published in thirty countries.
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Credits
Cover design by James Iacobelli
Cover photograph © Dave Stamboulis / Getty Images
Map by Emily Faccini
Copyright
Originally published as La Sostanza del Male in Italy in 2016 by Einaudi.
BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN. Copyright © 2018 by Luca D’Andrea. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
Digital Edition JANUARY 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-268018-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-268017-4
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