"...The two trees twined their bodies in the middle of the sea. Was this a dream?..."

"Somewhere Close to Death" tells the old-time story of women's sorrows and hope in their lifelong quest for finding oneself. Set in Sicily, in the 1930s, the novel translates the experiences of the countess Lucrecia-Constança di Ellerka, who finds herself at the mercy of her ruthless grandfather's will. In one dark and cruel world, ruled under the opposing might of men, she is taught to perceive herself as not more than a mere object. At the age of thirteen Lucrecia learns of her arranged betrothal to an older man. The girl comes to know of the predestined and forgotten life of her mother and the dark secrecy behind her grandmother's passing. Once the veil of belief falls before her eyes, the countess loses the only hope that has held her standing amongst the living - her longing for love. Lucrecia finds herself at the crossroad between life and death. Barren of hope before her Christian god, she takes ear to the voice of her own feminine divinity, hearing the whispers of shadows - she is lead to the truth of her spirit. In her many dreams and through the lasting illusion, that she might one day know happiness, the little countess gives her heart to one grave lie in the face of her Persian servant. Finding true friendship for short and sensing the idle years of vain splendour to come, the girl neglects the expectations of others, straying from every law imposed upon her and seeking solace in her very self. In the abrupt ending of her girlhood and thus the coming of her days as a woman, she raises her hand above men's ruling over her soul and flesh, declaring alone - her suffered and longed upon freedom.

"The countess leaned back to the leather seat. She silently bit over her paled lips with great exertion to forestall her tears from flowing down her white face. The girl was looking to the side of the road and the waves as they were splashing upon one another on the rocks. Then, Lucrecia-Constança strained her eyes to the distance, between the dry and yellowed thorns, there she saw the lively marks of splashed vermilion. Amidst the meadow, swayed flecks of red poppies as the grass trembled low to the bubbling of the small creeks. Amongst the hardness of the dry earth, they whispered in tongues unknown and forgotten. Lone, Lucrecia took ear, listening to their words of no flesh, these earthen murmurs of the void and the lost distant whiffs of time. In the hissing of the teapot with chamomile or the wet candle lit in the chapel, the cracking of the old door or the barefoot lifeless tremble of her feet upon the garden, she heard them then. She would whisper to them, may they come to her in night, when sleep was but a traitor and it turned then its back on her. She called out every colour, every branch, every grass she knew and they answered back to her lovingly, awaking in the dark, they knew her by her voice."

[This is the second edit of the novel "Somewhere Close to Death", elaborated and further developed upon the depth of the text, including the full glossary (within the book) for all of the occurring foreign words and names. In the book itself, the reader is not going to find any mention of it being re-edited, as this edition of the literary work counts as final.]