Santa Rita silently watches over the lives of the characters of The saint of others by Anna Voltaggio (Neri Pozza), becoming a guide and guardian of impossible desires, hidden pains and broken bonds. It is she, the saint of impossibles, who links the parallel stories of Tommaso, abandoned by Nica on a day in May, and Gelsomina with her daughter Margherita, forced to live in exile by their family.
In this novel, devotion is not a sterile ritual: it is strength, courage and concrete hope, a light that passes through the fragility of the protagonists. Tommaso searches for Nica among the hot and torpid streets of Palermo, chasing not only a lost love, but the most alive part of himself. At the same time, Margherita arrives as a gift, the fruit of a vow to Santa Rita, and through her example mother and daughter find the strength to face exile, pain and untold truths. Rita thus becomes a tangible presence: a saint who descends from the pedestal and accompanies the lives of the living, showing how the sacred can live even in the most secular existences, in the most painful choices, in the most fragile hopes.
Anna Voltaggio intertwines memory, desire and guilt in a living and oppressive Palermo, creating a fresco in which the miracle and everyday life mix. With delicacy and depth, the novel celebrates female resilience, motherhood, the bonds that are built and rebuilt, and the ability to turn to heaven without losing earthly life.
