As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt that I was flying. One, two, three... All I had to do was close my eyes, and I could change reality, rearrange it to my taste. One, two, three... The inhabitants of the town of Bari in southern Italy call Maria Malacarne - a bad seed. Her grandmother gave her this nickname as a child for her indomitable explosive temper. The little dark girl has a proud character, and to abide by the harsh rules of the area in which she grew up is worse than death for her. Malacarne's only outlet is friendship with her classmate Michele, a clumsy fat boy, an outcast like herself. As the years go by, Maria grows up, and the desire to escape from the dirt and cruelty of her native neighborhood matures in her. But the old city does not let her go, tightly entangling her with invisible threads of kinship with poor dilapidated houses and ancient stones of the pavement. Rough and gentle, permeated with the sun and salty breeze, Rosa Ventrella’s novel rises to the level of masterpieces of Italian neorealism, painting nostalgic pictures of the life of Apulia.