Friendship is stronger than evil

Primo and Bianca met for the first time as teenagers, on a hike in the mountains surrounding Turin, sharing confidences, laughter, and the dreams of a life steeped in promise. But the racial laws, then the war and the German occupation changed everything. And Bianca and Primo, who felt so similar, discovered they were different. Primo, who was Jewish and whose last name was Levi, was arrested and deported on a convoy to Auschwitz. In this man-made hell, he lost none of his dignity and humanity, even in the face of the most extreme brutality. He later became one of the greatest witnesses of the twentieth century.

Bianca, born Bianca Guidetti Serra, remained in Turin and became a partisan courier. Bianca was a free woman in every sense of the word, free-thinking, sharp, strong, and courageous, with a playful and ironic spirit. She fought in the Resistance under the name Nerina, risking exposure, becoming enraged by the injustices she witnessed, by the racial laws, by her friends being treated with contempt; she argued with the people of her city who slept, didn't see, and pretended not to hear. She tore down the posters that plastered Turin and glorified racial hatred. She mounted her bicycle and faced those difficult years, holding nothing back, without excuses, supported by a profound humanity and a formidable sensitivity. After the war, she was able to embrace Primo again and forge a deep friendship with him, destined to last a lifetime. Indeed, it was Bianca who was able to comfort Primo even in the darkest moments.

With I'll Come to You with Paper Wings (De Agostini, 2025, 160 pp., also available as an ebook), Romina Casagrande addresses the younger generations first and foremost with a story that evokes the destinies of two young people forced to grow up too quickly, to face different but equally decisive trials. In those terrible years, not only the actions Primo and Bianca perform, but also their words become resistance: hidden notes, papers left to the wind, unite them again, despite the distance and the war. And they give them the courage to survive. Their voices intertwine with those of other men and women who, from the railings of trains, have sent messages of hope, love, and farewell: fragments of memory that have reached us, flying on paper wings. The paper wings, in fact, that give the book its title. A book designed for young people, as mentioned, but which is addressed to everyone because it is a tribute to Primo, to Bianca, to all those young people who still believe that good feelings, like friendship, can conquer everything, even in the darkest and longest night.