“This is the story of when I ran away from home, carrying only house keys and a bag of garbage, and a wolf stole my heart”

A young boy, a deserted city, a black wolf. Rusco and the Keeper of the Heart is the story of ten-
year-old Rusco’s adventures by night when he runs away from home with a garbage bag and
finds himself walking the streets of his empty city, accompanied only by the voices in his head. A black wolf, like the border between darkness and light, suddenly appears under the streetlamp
and steals his heart. Rusco has no choice but to chase after him. It may seem scary, yet Rusco is
soon led into a series of encounters with nocturnal animals, discovering an entire ecosystem in
the concrete jungle.

This is the story of a world apart from our current one: where animals—as they did during the first year of the pandemic—reclaim urban spaces and the coexistence of humans and predators becomes not only possible, but the way forward towards safeguarding biodiversity. The book opens a glimpse into a lost, almost magical dimension of life, one that only kids can truly understand. Because only kids know how little there is to fear about friendship with an animal.

MIA CANESTRINI is a zoologist who specializes in animal biodiversity conservation. She has dedicated herself for over fifteen years to wolf conservation, protecting the most iconic species in the wild.
She leads the series “La bella e le bestie” (“Beauty and the Beasts”) for the program 105 Friends on Radio 105, is featured on Geo (Rai 3) with the column “Buone notizie dalla Natura” (“Good News from Nature”), and co-hosts “La banda dei fuoriclasse” on Rai Gulp and “Il Provinciale” on Rai 2.

Do you want to know more about the author and keynote speaker Mia Canestrini?
Visit her page