“Dig, fall to the bowels of the mountains to hide in all the pain possible, pretend not to try anything anymore, entrust to the delicate swing of a new flower, at the beat of the wings of a bat, to the darkness of the heart of the rock its overwhelmed soul, it will be one of the few paths that can be traveled” is one of the key phrases of the beautiful novel of Francesco Aloe “The echo of my words” For the series I Visionari di Milieu Edizioni; Freely inspired by the figure of the great speleologist Luigi Donini and his associates who in the 1960s, on the Bolognese hills, opposed those who wanted to continue to abuse that territory.
“Before working on the novel I collaborated in the script of a docufilm on the topic, most of the research was carried out in those years, between 2019 and 2023: articles, interviews with witnesses, inspections with speleologists and technicians … a field research, old style and 360 degrees. I helped me a lot of university education, competences gained and sedimented in the period of the studies and the PhD “, explains Aloe, Calabrian but moved to San Lazzaro di Savena for years, where he was also councilor. Each of his novels – as “the last girl in Europe” or “awaits winter” – in addition to representing a clear narrative advancement in the name of stylistic precision, delicacy in the construction of the characters, offers those who read the author’s experience to elaborate the intertwining. “The echo of my words” is a highly metaphorical story, in which the rock and emptiness refer to aspects of the human soul, with which each person with sensitivity must deal. Going into the bowels of the earth means rejecting certain surface realities: “In many cases the push comes from an external discomfort, of course, not surprisingly I also tell the anecdote of citizens who were saved by taking refuge in the caves during the bombings of the allies in the Second World War. In that case the cave is protective, a refuge, or even simply a personal escape route where to find yourself. Much more often, however, it is a symbolic place where those who go down to deal with its worst fears but also with its deeper ambitions: it is a continuous dialogue between the awareness of the risk and the charm of the unknown “, explains Aloe. And the reference to Plato is immediate.