Just for one day

The protagonist of this book runs, he runs because running, like writing, is effort. It is to clear a plot of land and make it fertile, to eliminate the stones one by one, with bare hands. He runs, and while he runs he observes his city, Rome, amazing in the morning, just after dawn – when it rains, when it’s cold, when he can longer feel his legs – and thinks about what he wants to write, about the perfect sentence that never seems to come, about the books he loves, seeds scattered along that field that is so hard to cultivate. The characters from his life pass by quickly, his wife, his children, his grandmother Emilia, Pierina. There’s no time to stop and look at them, they are the audience silently cheering for him. It’s a long preparation, methodical, and the goal is one, improve his running time to learn a great lesson once again: there is no redemption without effort.

Massimiliano Boni was born in Rome in 1971. Since 2011 he has worked for the Constitutional Court. In 2006 he published La parola ritrovata (Giuntina). In 2013 he ran his first marathon. In 2014 his last one.

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