Author: Chiara Parenti
Publication date: 2015
Publisher: Garzanti
Genre: Romance
Language: Italian
Rate: 5/5 ⭐️
Movie: "Jumping from high places" (2022) - Netflix
The plot:
Rekindle the stars... This dark is blinding everyone.
Do one thing that scares you at least once a day and you will see that you will find the strength to do more. These are the words that Sole finds in her letter that her best friend wrote to her shortly before leaving for Paris, immediately after the only quarrel of their life. That quarrel that Sole will forever regret, because he will never see Stella again, the most important person for her. Sole does not stop looking at that paper because, even though she is only twenty-five, there is nothing more difficult for her than to overcome her fears. She knows that if she keeps them close, there is nothing to risk: the secure job for which she has given up the dream of going to university; the first kiss ever given because it is less dangerous to imagine it in the pages of a book than to actually live it. But now she Sole can't wait any longer. She owes it to her friend. So she for a hundred days she faces one fear at a time: from jumping with a parachute to riding a roller coaster; from walking through a forest under the starry sky to taking a solo trip to Paris. Day after day, she discovers the pleasure of the unexpected and the adrenaline that makes her heart beat. Supporting her is Samanta, a teenager struggling with the world who is afraid even of her reflection of her. Seeing herself again in her, Sole tries to move her insecurity about her and teach her what she has just learned: it is normal to be afraid of her, what is needed of her is just a single, single, magnificent instant without it. But there is a single moment that the Sun is not yet ready to live. The instant she has to confess the truth to the guy she's always been in love with. A more difficult test than all the others. Because even love can dress up in habit and be confusing. And to truly love you have to be ready to get involved. Because even dreams can change when they are just a fairy tale.
"Jumping from a parachute, holding a tarantula, walking alone in the woods, exploring a cave, bungee jumping .." These are just some of the fears that Sole faced, pushed by her friend Stella who, just before leaving for Paris left her a letter in which he urged her to live to the fullest, not to give up on experiences only because she was held back by fear.
As Sun, each of us has a insurmountable fear, which we cannot overcome and this, most of the time, leads to precluding us from opportunities that could be educational for ourselves. In some cases we even ask a friend or a relative for advice so that they tell us what we already know, but we don't have the courage to admit: “get involved!”. This someone is able to take us out of our comfort zone, to push us to do our best in every possible situation and invites us to live our life in the best possible way. As a famous Italian proverb says “chi ben vive, ben muore” (whoever lives well, dies well), because a half-lived life is not worthy of being called such.
We should therefore stop holding back and living with regrets, "ifs" and "buts" and instead begin to take over the reins of our life and face it head on. This concept Chiara Parenti clearly demonstrates it to us in the course of this novel, even going so far as to overturn all our convictions, as well as those of Sole who, in the end, realizes that she no longer needs the guidance of her best friend Stella to live to the fullest.
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