Sibilla and Anna belong to two different generations: one was born in 1963, the other in 1945. Their worlds are also different, the intellectual upper middle class and the working class. Yet, even though they don’t know each other, they have something in common: an illness that causes them to suffer from debilitating and unbearable pain, and little time left.

Sibilla is an activist in the battle for the full implementation of the law on assisted suicide and, unlike Anna, she is wealthy: she knows that she does not have to endure her ordeal indefinitely, as she can afford the prospect of a dignified end in Switzerland. Anna, on the other hand, a child of the post-war period, has done menial jobs all her life, has been denied the opportunity to study, and has neither the financial resources nor full awareness of her rights. So, while Sibilla does everything she can to rebel, Anna ends up not even having control over her own body, because others decide for her. And her tenacious and generous sister Gabriella finds herself alone, struggling to navigate the inefficiencies and injustices of an increasingly less public health service.

By telling the story of the last days of these two women she met and was close to, in the form of a novel, Valentina Petrini speaks about all of us: our loved ones, our future, our rights. She highlights the hypocrisy and injustice of a society that turns a blind eye —or both eyes— when economic and cultural inequalities affect us deeply and make us first -or second- class citizens, even when we face the most crucial choices. If we are not free to decide whether and how to treat ourselves, how to live, and how to die, how much is our freedom really worth?

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