THE ANCESTOR - BY DANIELLE TRUSSONI

When Alberta receives an official document, all written in Italian, she goes to her estranged husband to see if they can suss out what's been received. It turns out to be about the Montebianco estate, of which Bert is the inheritor, and it beckons her come in person to Italy to go over the estate details.

I really enjoyed this book, particularly the second half after she's arrived at the castle to meet/receive her inheritance. The castle environment was so well written, truly gothic and remote and dark. The journey that Bert (Alberta) embarks upon surrendering herself to the castle went places I was not expecting it to go. I say surrendering because she is flown in in the dead of winter by helicopter, and is basically dropped there without knowing what the true nature of her inheritance is, for as we find out, it is not just THINGS that she inherits, but a true legacy that ties her to her ancestors.

I felt especially touched by many passages in this book, particularly this one, "....i knew, as they vanished in the half-light, that they were not gone. I carried them in my body. My ancestors lived in my bones, and in my blood, in the connections of my nervous system, and in the unreachable recesses of my consciousness. They would always be with me..."  I choked up a bit on that now that my mother and grandmother are passed on and have become "my ancestors" - I think of this physicality that continues to link us together even those they are no longer alive in their own bodies, still they live on in me. This book made me feel that presence, so thank you for that...realization.

There were also other very poignant moments in this story on the nature of the mountains, the smallness of self compared to the universe, the simplicity of certain societies and their vulnerability because of that simplicity. To quote some more beautiful passages, "Time, millions and millions of years of it, more than I could even imagine, had passed through these gorges, moving fast and treacherous as snow melt. The mountains had stood against it, strong and indifferent. The fierce beauty of it all made me tremble with humility and terror. What was I --what were any of us --compared to this?"  and on page 241, "It was moonless, without a cloud in the sky. Stars filled the darkness, and uncountable explosion of brilliance, proof that we were just one small piece of an immense, burning universe." Most of the writing was very straightforward but then I'd run into sentences such as the above, and I'd just swoon. 

I honestly was hoping for a slightly different more unrealistic ending but I will admit that the choice made by the character was not surprising. I just wanted more time with Aki .... I would've liked to have seen that gone on longer.

All in all, due to the writing, the intensity, and the uniqueness of the storyline, this had me enthralled to see where it was heading and when it got there,  I enjoyed where I was. So much so, that I actually didn't want to leave. I highly recommend this book and definitely will read more by this author!