Francesca Giannone

Southern Italy, June 1934. In Lizzanello, a small town of a few thousand, a bus arrives in the town square carrying a young couple—Carlo, a southern native happy to be returning home, and his northern-born wife Anna, anxious and uncertain. A year later, Anna applies for a job at the local post office and becomes the town’s first female postwoman. Women turn their backs on her, men mock her. Yet over time, Anna becomes an invisible thread connecting the townspeople. Despite this, she remains “the outsider” for three decades—a proud, fierce woman who says what she thinks and refuses to be bound by the unspoken rules restricting the lives of local women.

Published by Metafora, 2025