When a book chooses you!

When a book chooses you!
By Valeria Ambrogio

Reading books is a common enough activity, but what are your habits when you want to buy a book? Some people might choose a book by their favourite writer, others go directly to the best-seller bookshelf. Some buy books recommended to them and then there are people – like me – who do not enter a bookshop with a specific idea but come across a book whose title or cover captivates them.

This is what happened to me with the book Cosa ti Manca per Essere Felice? by Simona Atzori. Unfortunately, there is no English version of it yet, but a translation of the title might be “What do you Need to be Happy?”

The day this book chose me was stressful – I had entered the bookshop to relax. I was a bit sad for no particular reason. It was just the typical kind of day when you think all the world is against you. I suddenly saw a dancing girl, with beautiful curly hair and wearing a long pink dress. This person – on the front cover – had something missing, something different from most of us, and I understood better with the quotation from Candido Cannavò “Le sue braccia sono rimaste in cielo, ma nessuno ha fatto una tragedia” (“her arms remained in the sky, but no one thought it was a tragedy” – my own translation). I asked myself: How can a disabled person say that she is happy? It was not by chance that I saw that book that day. Cosa ti Manca per Essere Felice? came home with me.

It is very restrictive to label this book as autobiography, because it is so much more. The writer tells us about her life, her birth without arms, the efforts of her parents, the behaviour of other people and her attempts through medical innovations to appear normal. But what is normal? Who can define it? What is really essential in our lives? Her story helps us to value what we have, but, above all, who we are.
Simona Atzori discovered her happiness when she and her family finally recognized her gift, when they realized that it is not necessary for us all to be physically identical to be accepted in the world. The author emphasises how wonderful it is to overcome the boundaries and labels that other people give us. She learnt that the best solution is to avoid hiding, to discover the strength inside us and to start to become what we want, without apologies.

The writer is a dancer and a painter. She does everyday activities with her feet, instead of her hands, and this is normal for her. Simona Atzori also writes about the people she has met during her conferences around the world, and above all in schools, to show her life and to destroy the walls that we create between ourselves and everything that it is different from us. She transformed what others consider a limit into her strength.
This book could help us to think about our lives from another perspective and find honest answers to simple questions. For example, are we what we want to be or what other people want us to be? What is our happiness? Do we need everything we desire to be happy? Do we fossilize on what we do not have or we are satisfied with what we have?

In conclusion, I recommend this book to those who are ready to take on a challenge because her story is an inspiration for us all as well as being an enjoyable read. I also recommend it to those who want to study or practice Italian because, from a linguistic perspective, reading this book would provide an interesting challenge if your Italian reading comprehension skills are around intermediate or upper-intermediate level (close to B2 or higher).