Catre nunta

Ninon, aged twenty-three, has AIDS and is preparing to marry Gino. He is a young Italian who sells clothes at a market. Their wedding will take place in a small Italian coastal village. Her parents, long estranged, travel across Europe on separate journeys to attend.

Ninon caught the virus during a brief affair. Her doctors say she may have three years of normal life left. Grief shapes her parents’ journeys as the wedding draws near. Gino’s father, in despair, thinks about killing his future daughter-in-law. He sees the act as necessary and imagines his defence in court.

John Berger’s novel weaves the couple’s love story through her parents’ travels. Many other voices and stories enter along the way. It explores grief, hope, and love in the face of death. At the wedding, Ninon takes off her shoes to dance with Gino. Their dance expresses a joy that seems beyond death’s reach.

The prose has a gentle, poetic tone. Ioana Vacarescu translated this edition.