Once upon a time there was a river

A novel of learning, which follows the narrator from childhood to adulthood, its vivid language bears the author's "trademark": the splendid fusion of country talk with agile poetic fluency. This fusion, permeated by a critical and cultured eye, results in a picturesque language dense with life wisdom—that generated by deep living, connected to the roots and essential truth of things and beings, through which life fulfills. A novel in which tenderness, joy, and the strength of life prevail over the natural "mismatches," or losses that generate pain and suffering, Once Upon a River is one of those books that enchant readers from 9 to 90 years old. Each can read it with their own eyes, for to each it will reveal a different face. This is the great secret of poetry. And it is from it that Martha Pannunnzio's narrative word is nourished and draws its strength.