Iris, The Freedom

Inspired by the life of Iris Versari, Walter Veltroni composes an extraordinary novel of love and struggle, telling us without discount about those boys who wrote History with blood and courage.

No matter if you are twenty years old, being a partisan means fighting for freedom, risking yourself for others and giving yourself, without knowing how it will end. And sometimes it means dying without having been able to enjoy that long-awaited freedom. Iris Versari is just twenty-one when she enlists in the band of the legendary Silvio Corbari, a leader little inclined to commands, discipline, and obedience. The only woman in the gang, her courage and determination are often not enough: she carries out the actions, weapons in hand, and does not hesitate to kill, but by the other partisans she is seen as the leader's woman. In fact, with Silvio she weaves an intense relationship, which makes the moments spent together indelible. Until one day in August 1944, when Iris takes her own life after killing an SS woman, shooting herself to enable her comrades to escape the militia of fascists and Nazis who have discovered, perhaps thanks to a spy, their refuge in the mountains of Romagna. But despite his sacrifice, Corbari and the others will not escape death. Their bodies, with Iris's, will be displayed, hanged, in a square in Forli. Walter Veltroni tells us about a reckless young woman who, with fire in her eyes and freedom in her heart, fought for our democracy.

Details +

Publication date: 08.04.2025
Publisher: Rizzoli
Country: Italy

By the same author +