Qualcosa resta

Pedro has a suspicion, a hope, perhaps a faith: he believes his dog Lobo is capable of sniffing out death. And with a talent like that, he thinks, one could really prevent people we love from dying. From dying too soon, at least. Instead, it is Ida, his partner, who leaves prematurely from a heart attack, and he becomes convinced that he has “broken her heart.” Pedro and Ida had met in the veterinary clinic in Aridosa, a special town that rose from the rubble of a suburb thanks to the will and genius of the Professora: a place where old people can meet their end with dignity and where immigrants and second generations, caring for them, meanwhile reinvent Italy and life. To Ida, a veterinarian from Aridosa, Pedro had confided his feeling that Lobo’s health problems were, in fact, signs of his extraordinary talent. And now that Ida is dead, Pedro blames himself and despairs: having failed to read the signals sent by Lobo, he was unable to save her. But in time − partly thanks to Ida’s brother, who is the narrator of this story − Pedro understands that Lobo is not attracted by the smell of death, but by the smell of the good that some people do, by the good they leave behind, perhaps without realizing it. And so from Aridosa, chasing the trail of this smell of good, Pedro and Lobo begin a journey that is an investigation into the feeling of the world: because love, after all, is a smell.