The Postman by Antonio Skàrmeta

Posti che vai, Libri che trovi.

Happy Birthday, Massimo!

A beautiful movie, an unforgettable actor...

Nostalgia is a modern word; it is coined by the matching of two ancient greek words. Νόστος means return and άλγος represents the pain.

Nostalgia is a state of physical and sentimental distance from our home (homesickness) from a situation or from a person of our past.

This feeling totally permeates Antonio Skarmeta's book: The Postman. The mainsetting is Isla Negra in Chile, where the only dweller is the famous poet Pablo Neruda that receives quintals of letters every day. The fisherman Mario Jiménez improvises postman to talk with the poet. Mario strikes up a friendship with Pablo and the poet donates him his poembook with autograph. Neruda's poems are the background of a bittersweet book, and his words and his teaching retrace Mario's life. After Pinochet's coup d'état, Neruda escapes from Isla Negra and he asks to Mario to record homeland's sounds: the screech of seagulls, the foam of waves against the reefs, the windnoise inside a shell.

I really recommend this book because the story is simple and sweet with a drammatic ending and because Mario's pure feelings and his naivety will capture your heart.