Černé srdce – Avallone Silvia (2025)

Evil condemns. Evil resists. Evil unites. But only those who know it can rediscover good.

Emilia is thirty-one, and her arrival in the remote alpine village of Sassaia causes a stir. Along with her bags, she carries a heavy secret that she wants to hide in the mountains from everyone who has ever known her.
However, Emilia is not the only one hiding something in Sassaia. Teacher Bruno lives in seclusion more out of resignation than choice. He too knows the weight of guilt — but from the opposite side. Emilia carries the guilt of the perpetrator, Bruno the grief of the victim. Both are united by loneliness, silence, and inner darkness. Perhaps that is why they manage to find their way to each other and provide what they have long denied themselves — understanding and acceptance.

Silvia Avallone portrays her characters with deep tenderness and compassion. In her novel, she takes us behind the walls of a juvenile prison and into the depths of the inner landscapes of those whose fate was broken before they had a chance to grow. Black Heart is a novel about guilt and justice, about judgment and the possibility of redemption. And above all, about humanity that remains even where we have stopped looking for it.