When the Ragazzi say: "Mamma, please write a Book!" [Wenn Ragazzi sagen: „Mamma, schreib‘ ein Buch!“]

ISBN (printed book): 978-3-910347-54-0

ISBN (EPUB): 978-3-910347-55-7

Short text

Marlena was born in the 1960s to an Italian guest worker family in Hemer in the Sauerland region. The fact that she was not born a boy was the father's first big disappointment. He promptly gave his daughter to her grandmother, who lived in southern Italy. The best time of the little girl's life began, but it was short-lived. At the age of six, Marlena was brought back to Germany in a "cloak-and-dagger operation", where her odyssey through the German school system began. It was not the last time that Marlena's life shifted between the two countries.

Their lives cannot be told without Valentina and Elisa. The result is an interweaving of three parallel life stories that couldn't be more different. What unites them all is the lightness and love with which they make their everyday life in southern Italy in a foreign country more bearable and hopeful.

Encouraged by her children to write these stories, Marlena takes up her pen…

Keywords : Italy, Germany, guest worker, migration, integration, emigration, homeland, Sauerland, biography, anecdotes, life story, love story, teacher, headmistress, Düsseldorf, Hemer, Märkischer Kreis, Dortmund, Benevento, short stories, studies.

About the author

The Düsseldorf school principal, Dr. Antonietta Patrizia Zeoli, was born in 1973 in Hemer in the Sauerland region. She first studied in Salerno, Italy, and then trained as a theater teacher at the TU Dortmund. Since 1999 she has been a high school teacher for English, German and philosophy.

She succeeds in creating an exciting and autofictional collection of anecdotes. In addition to being entertaining, she provides a critical analysis of the topic of integration and thus offers some valuable food for thought.

Further links

Interview with the author

Author page

E-book information