Alberto has no easy life. He is the son of elderly parents he lives a relationship of mutual intolerance with. Even at the school he attends with poor results, things do not go better. Multiethnic and messy, tension is palpable in his classroom, the teens are divided into groups. Now, at the age of 16, at the end of the school year, Alberto’s literature teacher corners him: either he writes in a 7-day period a decent tale inspired by a word of four letters of his choice, or he will flunk out of school. Thus a frantic week begins (the time span the novel also takes place in), rich of unforeseen events: his father’s illness, the Senegalese schoolgirl he has a crush on is assailed, the discovery of the talents of some friends, the new relationship with his grandfather. All that puts in Alberto a reactive, new, and unpredictable force into motion. Alberto understands that his real problem is the walls he raises around himself, indeed the walls that all the people raise around themselves. This discovery will lead him to heal some wounds and to find out a different and more constructive way to face life, and WALL will also be the word he writes a tale about.
Adolescence, parent / child relationship, multiethnic schools with their conflicts and their resources, friendship, love ... the major issues of life are all concentrated in this novel. In times of raising walls around the world, a book about breaking down walls.
Adolescence, parent / child relationship, multiethnic schools, friendship, love… a novel for teens about the labours of growing up.