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By Root 382 0

the receiver was breathing, soft and moist and slightly sharp. I realized that she, too, was crying. We were talking to each other for the first time in eight years, and that sharpness and those sighs were all that a son and a mother can say to each other, after all that time. We continued like that, both silent, until we were cut off.

That was when I knew she was still alive, and maybe it was also then that I realized, for the first time, that I was, too.

I’m not quite sure how. But I was.

Enaiatollah finished telling his story soon after turning twenty-one (maybe). The date of his birthday has been decided by the authorities: it is September 1, 1989. His mother is living in Pakistan and he hopes to see her soon. He has recently discovered that there really are crocodiles in the sea.

Fabio Geda is an Italian novelist who works with children who are under duress. He writes for several Italian magazines and newspapers and teaches creative writing at Scuola Holden, the Italian school of storytelling in Turin. This is his first book to be translated into English.

Enaiatollah Akbari graduated from high school in the spring of 2011 and plans to attend university in Italy while continuing to support his mother and siblings, who are now living in Pakistan. He dreams of having the chance to return one day to a democratic and peaceful Afghanistan.

Howard Curtis is a London-based translator of Italian and French texts, for which he has won numerous awards, including the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation. He was short-listed for the 2010 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.