October I have been living alone in Grandpa’s cabin for over a month now. The long days with golden sunsets have gradually faded, and the nights are getting longer and longer. Yesterday, when I turned on the satellite phone, I found three messages from Mum, asking me how I was. My reply was very dry: “I’m fine, don’t worry.” She had tried to dissuade me from embarking on my arctic pilgrimage to the island of Svalbard from the very start. She had told me that for a young woman like me, accustomed to living in a bustling city, that remote place would turn into a nightmare. She hated anything that reminded her of d ad. But the more she had discouraged me, the more my resolve had strengthened. For once, my two halves, the Norwegian and the Italian, had been in agreement. The Norwegian half had insisted that I should visit the land of my father’s ancestors, while the Italian half had hard-headedly wanted to sh...
My thoughts and stories