One morning, Gemma leaves her everyday life behind her and gets on a plane with her sixteen-year-old son Pietro in tow. Destination Sarajevo, a border city between West and East, still scarred by the wounds of the recent past. Awaiting her at the airport is Gojko, Bosnian poet, old friend and former suitor, who during the festive days of the 1984 Winter Olympics introduced Gemma to the love of her life, Diego,  a photographer who captured scenes of stunning beauty in the reflections of puddles.

This novel tells the story of their love affair, a story of once reckless youngsters grown older in the aftermath of war. A story of a love  as passionate and imperfect as only true love can be. But also the story of motherhood sought, thwarted and finally found, the mysterious tale of a birth that defies both science and biology.

In this great fresco of shadow and light, voices from the past make themselves heard, resonating from Gemma's womb to the very heart of the war-torn city. But  Gemma and Diego's story is also the story of all humanity, a devastating contemporary portrait of the world at war and at peace.

The peace is the sterility of a West blinded by ruthless egoism. The war is that of a woman engaged in a desperate, defiant battle against nature. The siege of Sarajevo becomes the siege of each individual  in this drama of common people whom history propels towards a destiny lying  in wait for them like a sniper. The intimate journey of a man and woman toward parenthood becomes an epic struggle, a tale as stern as justice, as luminous as a miracle.

After the unforgettable Non ti muovere,  Margaret Mazzantini uses her inimitable gift of language to create a work of sweeping range and intense moral commitment, proving that even the worst evils of history can lead to the wonder of a new beginning. An epiphany come to life in the changing expressions, the gangly limbs, the moods and whims  of a present-day son called Pietro.