There are books that are read. And then there are books that you go through, like you go through a storm. Martina. The heart and the rose undoubtedly belongs to the second category. It is not just the story of the brief existence of a little girl affected by an incurable tumor. It is a story that forces the reader to stop, to question himself, to look into the eyes of the mystery of pain and, at the same time, the even more disconcerting mystery of hope.
In Martina. The Heart and the rose (Ares editions) Giovanna Pupillo Kluzer and Riccardo Caniato construct an intense and engaging narrative that never indulges in easy sentimentality. Martina’s story emerges page after page with a disarming force precisely because it is told in its daily concreteness: a lively, intelligent little girl, in love with life, the mountains, animals, her family. A little girl who dreams, laughs, plays and who suddenly finds herself fighting against one of the most aggressive pediatric tumors.
Yet the center of the book is not the disease. The center is Martina.
His ability to face suffering without losing his serenity, his clear look at things, his surprising spiritual maturity make these pages something more than a simple testimony. Martina never appears as a heroine constructed on the drawing board. She remains an authentic child, with her fears, her questions, her moments of discouragement. And it is precisely this authenticity that makes his journey credible and moving.
Particularly successful is the narrative choice of entrusting much of the story to the maternal voice. The mother hides nothing: neither anger, nor rebellion, nor the sense of helplessness in the face of the diagnosis. The reader thus witnesses not only Martina’s journey, but also the profound transformation of an entire family. A transformation that passes through suffering and leads to a more conscious and radical faith.
The greatest merit of the volume perhaps lies precisely in this: it does not offer simplistic answers to the problem of evil. It does not pretend to explain the inexplicable. Rather, it shows how, within a humanly unbearable ordeal, an extraordinary experience of love can arise. The love of a daughter for her parents, that of parents for their daughter, that for the sick encountered in the hospital corridors, that which progressively opens up to the dimension of faith. Upon closer inspection, they are all miracles, the miracles produced by faith, and not the opposite, because it is faith that produces miracles, as Dostoevsky writes in Brothers Karamazov.
The writing is simple, direct, without literary devices. A choice that turns out to be a winning one. The sobriety of language in fact allows the facts to speak for themselves. And the facts, in this story, possess a narrative power that does not need special effects.
Giovanna Pupillo Kluzer and Riccardo Caniato
The Marian dimension that runs through the entire story is also very significant. Mary, the “Rose” of the title, is not presented as an ornamental element of devotion, but as a living and maternal presence that accompanies the journey of the little protagonist. For the believing reader this perspective offers profound insights into meditation; for those who approach the book with greater religious distance, it still represents a precious key to understanding Martina’s spiritual universe. For everyone the reflection that on this earth such pain is not acceptable without the hope that there is another life and another place that will repair the wrongs suffered and dry the tears of those who have experienced them in the apparent lottery of earthly life.
At the end of reading, a rare feeling remains. The pain described is immense, yet sadness does not prevail. Instead, it remains a form of light. The light of a little girl who is more mature than an adult in her candor who, despite going through the thickest darkness, has never stopped smiling. And which continues to speak to the reader’s heart with the gentle strength of authentic testimonies.
Martina. The Heart and the Rose is a book that moves deeply, but above all questions. He asks us what really matters in life, what the meaning of suffering is, where to find hope when all seems lost. This is why it is not just a biography or a family memoir. It is a spiritual testimony of great intensity, destined to leave a lasting mark on anyone who has the courage – and the fortune – to open its pages.
