The legend of black stones

By Giuseppe Preziuso Preziuso

The novel follows the life events of the main character, Pietro Garau, since the years of his enrollment at the University of Urbino till the end of the drammatic and unexpected events, that start at the beginning of the narration in a not-too-distant future.The frame in which Pietro's human and sentimental events unravel, in which Giovanna initially stands out when he was at university and later Yuan does, chinese girl that between Assemini (Cagliari) and Gutturu Mannu will later become his spouse, is the landscape of all the great events that happen in Italy and in the world in those years.In his father's land, located in the Gutturu Mannu valley, Pietro spends some of his time trying to craft a strange sculptural project and one day, in a cave near Monte Lattias, he discovers a strage black stone that, with other he will later become aware of, marks the beginning of a legend that will be crucial to avert the grave danger that looms over humanity

• Language: English
• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Release date: Dec 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220379601

Book preview

Preface

Giuseppe Preziuso, familiar face in the Italian poetry landsca-pe, retired professor, freelance journalist, founder and director of the fortnightly Riu Mannu between the Eighties and Nineties, hasn’t stopped enchanting us. When we read his ver-ses in his production La voce del vento it feels as if we’re in a parallel universe where each word takes us back to the extre-mization of the poetic idea in all of its power and simplicity. The lemma. Being a transformist poet allows each word to find all of its expressive potential. This key element in the writer’s thought finds its way in his new novel The Legend of the Black Stones.

Pietro, the artist who carves the stone, little by little comes to light, through his love for sculptures, the tough 1968 experien-ces and Italian politics, the acquaintance of Giovanna, the Andreotti’s era, through sex and eroticism despite the fear of AIDS, the cholera and his job as a professor, COVID-19 and much more. Very interesting is the choice of each setting, the villages, cities and metropolises, in an always-changing and never static narrative setting.

The mysterious object, the magic black stone, the obsidian, the main element of the narrative thread, that can be found in different regions of the world, is gradually revealed throughout the story. In this novel, the macro narrative and micro narrative meet each other and blend when the event is topical and then part ways when the event is not momentous to Pietro. Extremely important and profound is the touchpoint between eastern and western cultures, completely different from each other but able to meet each other like in Pietro and Yuan, effectively creating the possibility of a rapprochement between such distant worlds. What can be said about this novel, where the main character, the writer’s alter ego, is throughout the chapters framed within the big historical events that affect his choices and his life. From the small town he meets the big oriental, secular and philosophical civilization, little by little having to learn new languages in order to understand those people, those traditions and those things that were new to him. His daily job as a professor, that in some ways is an appendix to the story rather than a substantial element, allows him to open new scenarios.

A cosmopolitan novel, in the original meaning of the Greek term, where people are citizens of the world and would learn about new realities and new dramas, able to involve the reader, who’s then able to feel close to the main character. If in the first part of the novel, the story talks about his life as a sculptor with no oddities and nothing weird about it, reality is a bit different, as it seems as if destiny is bringing men towards a very specific goal: the stones.

Unbridled ambition leads to his downfall, Shakespeare in Macbeth, synthesize one of the interpretations of the book, with a clear reference to how mankind is able to destroy anything it can reach when it desperately wants something, with no respect for other human beings and nature.

The core of the whole novel is therefore not too far away from the philosophical line present in Preziuso’s poems, published in 2020 with the title La voce del vento where big existential topics can be found intertwined with the emotions of everyday life.

The incumbent presence of the tragedies in the story, the actual main character, silent but present throughout Pietro’s life, bewilders the reader. The two female characters in the novel, Giovanna and Yuan, are present till the end; the former, ex-girlfriend and very different from Pietro, becomes one of his best friends and the latter, the love of his life. The wild nature, primordial and untouched is portrayed in a realistic way, the landscape is magnified for Pietro’s musical-artistic appeal whilst his town Assemini is his crib. The art of sculpture is one of the key elements to understand how humans are able to craft something new out of apparently dead materials but it’s also a way for us to understand how global events can sometimes appear so distant; and furthermore, it also helps us think about our lives, our choices and our past loves.

We can see our main character grow throughout his experien-ces in school and university as well as thanks to his relationship with nature, where we can also appreciate his thoughts and his love for history and literature. Most beautiful are the scenes in which he meets with his friends, the group with which he can share and talk about events. There are many reflections in the novel, in the form of dialogues, about several and various political, historical, religious and philosophical topics, that allow us to identify the various different points of view of a given topic.

For our main character, keeping up with times, despite his nature, seems a daily challenge, in a world that runs fast and with the forced but important advent of technology. Food, instead, becomes a conversational topic of knowledge and of discovery of both occidental and oriental worlds, just like in the interesting scenes at his future wife’s restaurant. It almost feels like visiting Asia with the descriptions of his honeymoon trip between monuments, traditions and philosophical conver-sations. The stones that can be played are the real mystery of the novel, a discovery that we could call ethno-musical, and are also common in other parts of the world, in Africa, Asia and Venezuela. Africa... we can read some truly beautiful ethno-cultural descriptions in chapter 17, where the wild and mysterious beauty of this continent leaves visible marks on the various characters and the various indigenous people; the same pattern can be seen in chapter 19 during his trip to Venezuela, in which we can learn more about the mysterious black stones and in chapter 20 when talking about Chicago and a world in sudden change or London, cosmopolis and fragile. Most beautiful is Giulia’s figure and her dialogue with her Chinese uncle, in China’s green hills, where we can not only immerse ourselves into the unknown and untouched nature but we can also discover another key element of the black stones, whilst Gabriele’s one is more representative of his dad’s with his curiosity, particularly showcased in chapter 24 during his trip with Nazgul. In the final part, when COVID-19 breaks all equilibriums and relationships among people, China becomes the first victim of a disease that later disrupted the whole world.

That sense of fatalism forcefully comes back into the narrative, present in various parts of the novel.

Giuseppe Papale

I send you to the earth, with your destiny as your only luggage, which will be your inseparable companion and which, in the end, will accompany you back to this same place, from whence everything begins.

You will see the light of the sun, sunrises and sunsets, the stars in the sky and the flowering fields of a beautiful island, Sardinia; you will live your life as a man amidst rebellious humanity for the purpose for which it was created and your task is to bring my mercy.

1

John Cramer got out of bed lazily and ran his hand over his head, trying to fix the hair he had long lost, then headed to the bathroom to shave and revitalize his body with a shower. Tall and stocky, he began to hum an old song, as if to recall other times, but his wife Elizabeth Paterson began to grumble from the kitchen:

‹‹Hurry up, John, the sun is up already!››

‹‹Yes, dear...I like singing this song. It reminds me of that first time with you in the car...››

‹‹Hurry up, John!›› she resumed, impatient to be by the sea. ‹‹Don't waste time with old memories and hurry if you want to catch something today.››

‹‹Don't worry, Lizzy. The fish don't run away, they're there waiting for me to catch them.››

Elizabeth burst into a thunderous laugh as John walked into the kitchen dressed in a light blue robe. Breakfast was ready on the table, and he immediately tried a piece of chocolate cake.

‹‹Uh, it's delicious! ... and how good is my Lizzy who knows my weaknesses!›› he told her with a smile full of gratitude, approaching her and with one hand touching her large buttocks.

‹‹Come on, John; don't be so lazy!››

Lizzy had that sense of hurry that belongs to some dynamic women, even when there is no specific reason; the frenzy was simply part of her character and habits, although she was overweight.

Finally, John finished his breakfast and, this time, listening to his wife's insistence, he quickly slipped on a pair of blue shorts and a yellow T-shirt, finished getting ready and gathered up the things he needed to take to the beach. He took the car out of the garage and, with his wife, left Milton on Broadkill Road, on the south side of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

Lizzy was smiling and happy, very much in love with her John. She was blonde and plump, with curly hair cut into a bob and pale skin that didn't tan but turned red. She was, in any case, a very nice person, with a pretty face remarkable for its full lips, dyed with red lipstick.

All the way there she sang songs with her beautiful voice, until they reached Beach Plum Island to spend a relaxing day there.

The sea was calm, and the sun shone in a blue, cloudless sky. John had loaded everything they could possibly need into the jeep, starting with large towels, blue striped for him and orange for her with a smiling sun in the middle. Lizzy took them and carefully laid them out on the sand so they could lay their huge bodies on them.

‹‹Forget laboratories and industrial production! This is the place to be!›› she said, spreading her arms as if to thank the heavens.

The summer was over, although it hadn't been like the usual ones, and the place was almost deserted: this was just what John wanted, a bit of tranquility. For many years he had worked as a chemist at AstraZeneca, which had produced one of the vaccines to defeat the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, ten years earlier. Since the company was located north of Wilmington, he drove nearly two hundred miles every day and, now that he was nearly sixty, the distance was beginning to weigh on him, so he began to think about buying a house further north, near New Castle. Lizzy was a little sorry to leave Milton after so many years, but she understood John's needs.

Six feet tall, John had kept himself in pretty good shape until his marriage to Lizzy some twenty years earlier, playing rugby and training seriously. Then he had met the love of his life, a cashier in a supermarket, had married her and had been hired by AstraZeneca which made him more comfortably well-off; for this reason, he had gradually abandoned physical activity, bringing his weight to about 265 pounds. Sometimes, looking at old photographs, he would feel remorseful and promised himself to lose weight, getting down to 220 pounds as a first step; but his good intentions would then get lost among the desserts and cakes made by his good companion, who prepared them with so much love.

Lizzy loved to cook, for all occasions, cakes and pastries of all kinds, for her pleasure and that of John. So, she too, at a height of five feet two weighed around 175 pounds. They were a happy couple, but she had one regret: she had not been able to give John the joy of a child, even though they wanted one so much.

On his days off, when the weather wasn't bad, John would come out here, on Plum Beach Island, to fish and, although he wasn't very good at it, he managed to hook a few stripers, a striped bass, and sometimes even a boarfish.

Lizzy joked about it: ‹‹You hook more women than fish!››

John would answer her with a laugh, adding: ‹‹Eh, it used to be that way...then I found you and it was game over.››

By late in the afternoon, he had managed to catch three stripers and thought he might as well quit fishing at that point. They took a walk on the sand, after putting the fish and gear in the car.

‹‹John, why doesn't the vegetation have the bright colors it used to have?›› she asked, looking at the plants on the shoreline.

‹‹So many things are changing, dear, not just the vegetation. I think it’s partly due to pollution, partly due to chemicals being spread on the ground; but also, to so many other problems caused by mankind that we only have vague knowledge of. The drawbacks of progress.››

‹‹Progress? You say this is progress? Perhaps there is food abundance, better technology, well-developed robotics; but how nature has gone downhill!››

‹‹It is a worldwide problem that at least should serve to bring governments into dialogue; because this threat affects everyone, and no one can shirk their responsibilities. They discuss it all the time and hopefully they will find a good solution soon,›› John replied to her.

‹‹It's only been a few years since we emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and humanity has begun to recover from the Covid-19 obsession; but it seems that something more distressing is on the way.››

‹‹Let's hope not.››

‹‹At AstraZeneca you did a great job, John, and the whole world is grateful,›› Lizzy said. ‹‹Thank God, you found the vaccine that was critical to solving the problem.››

‹‹Yes. Thanks to that and other vaccines, mankind has returned to normal, to a peaceful life; but new challenges will always be there. Always, after bouts of peace, the perils of wars and new diseases return. In addition to natural disasters, however, man never stops creating conflicts that upset the balance of nature... Who knows what awaits us in the future!››

‹‹Well, John, for our age, perhaps we have already had our share of suffering and now it would be right to live peacefully in our old age, it’s getting close.››

‹‹Yes, Lizzy. The American government and all others should work together in peace to promote well-being for all and secure freedom for all mankind today and for future generations by preserving and improving environmental ecosystems, not making them worse,›› John added, quoting the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

They had strolled several feet into the sea, with the water up to their knees. It was beginning to get dark, and they were looking at the lights of Cape May on the other side of the bay, the southernmost town in New Jersey, very pretty for its Victorian-style houses; but also, one of the oldest and most famous seaside resorts on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Sometimes they went there, finding it better than those across the Delaware Bay.

Suddenly, Lizzy felt a pain under her foot, like a small bite that made her move it with a cry; but others came, dozens of them, also on her other leg and on John's too. They both lost their balance and fell into the salt water, which was red with their blood. Neither she nor John were able to escape a horrible but swift death. The waves of the sea continued their unperturbed movement, under the moonlight.

The next day, only their bones and the few clothes they wore bore witness to the end of their existence.

It was no easy task for the investigators to discover the truth, which no one could know because there were no eyewitnesses. Someone had seen them on the beach, someone else had greeted John while he was fishing; but then they were gone, and no one could shed any light on their death. It was also difficult to explain why only bones were left of their bodies, which had no fractures or breaks.

2

William Anderson and Rosy Marshall, two young people in their twenties from Fresno, California, were holding hands and strolling through the Shinzen Friendship Garden, a garden of rare beauty for its wealth of Asian plants, created in Japanese style and divided into four areas that reproduced the seasons. The place was quiet and relaxing; one could go for long walks, admire the trees and bonsai or look at the varieties of animals, where peacocks liked to display their beautiful crescents of colorful feathers.

William had something important to say to Rosy and thought the serenity of the garden was just what he needed. He had known Rosy since they were children and had fallen in love with her. However, every time he tried to tell her how he felt, he could feel himself blushing, being afraid of rejection and so he changed the subject.

Rosy of course had noticed his friend's awkward talk, his hesitation, his stammering. Girls are smart in love and so she was waiting for him to sooner or later get to the point and declare his feelings. Besides, the feeling was mutual, and she had fallen for William, as he was a handsome boy and also intelligent; that blush on his face, then, amused her and at the same time she liked it very much, knowing that it was due to his feelings for her.

‹‹You know, Rosy, next year I would like to take a vacation to Europe, there are beautiful cities and also beautiful beaches. I know Paris is gorgeous and it fascinates me. Have you ever thought about taking a trip to Europe?››

‹‹Yes, I have often dreamed of a vacation somewhere, overseas; but you'd have to go in good company.››

‹‹I agree. A trip on your own wouldn't make much sense, especially not to Paris,›› William replied, shaking her hand with a certain agitation, which didn't escape the girl's notice.

Rosy noticed that the boy's face was beginning to turn red as he looked at her and