by Rosina Lippi
First published 1900
Anna watches her neighbor Franz return from the Great War, forever changed by what he witnessed in the trenches. The year is 1909, and their small Austrian Alpine village seems untouched by the outside world, but change arrives whether the residents welcome it or not. Three families share generations of history in this remote mountain community. Anna belongs to one family, Franz to another, and the Webers represent the third clan whose lives intertwine with theirs across seven decades. Each person tells their own story across twelve connected tales. Anna witnesses her daughter's first love, Franz struggles to rebuild his life after the war, and the Weber children grow up to face their own challenges. The village endures through two world wars, economic hardship, and social transformation. Young lovers marry, children are born, parents age and die, and the cycle continues. These families discover that isolation cannot protect them from heartbreak, ambition, or the pull of the wider world. Their stories reveal how ordinary people create meaning through connection to each other and to the land that has shaped them for generations.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Austria, Alpine Village
Period: 1909, World War I
210 pages · Hardcover · Delphinium