I'm Staying Here

By: Marco Balzano, Jill Foulston - translator

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

In the small village of Curon in South Tyrol, 17-year-old Trina longs for a different life. She dedicates herself to becoming a teacher, but the year that she qualifies - 1923 - Mussolini's regime abolishes the use of German as a teaching language in the annexed Austrian territory. Defying their ruthless program of forced Italianization, Trina works for a clandestine network of schools in the valley, always with the risk of capture. In spite of this new climate of fear and uncertainty, she finds love and some measure of stability with Erich, an orphaned young man and her father's helper.

Now married and a mother, Trina's life is again thrown into uncertainty when Hitler's Germany announces the "Great Option" in 1939, and communities in South Tyrol are invited to join the Reich and leave Italy. The town splits, and ever-increasing rifts form among its people. Those who choose to stay, like Trina and her family, are seen as traitors and spies; they can no longer leave the house without suffering abuse. Then one day Trina comes home and finds that her daughter is missing....

Inspired by the striking image of the bell tower rising from Lake Resia, all that remains today of the village of Curon, Marco Balzano has written a poignant novel that beautifully interweaves great moments in history with the lives of everyday people.

©2021 Marco Balzano (P)2021 Tantor

Heartbreaking story

Recently my husband and I hiked in the Italian Dolomite Mountains, east of the location of this story-the village of Curon. We learned of the struggles between the native German-speaking population that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Italian government which was given this area at the end of World War I. So we knew of conflicting positions the people of that region faced during World War II, but not of the flooding of a village when a hydroelectrical dam was constructed. This is not a story with a happy ending but one that brings a personal picture of the hardships people experienced through the stories of fictional characters based on real events.