Italian shoes

Author's name: Henning Mankell Publisher: Kalima Translation Group Year of publication: 2006 Literary classification: Novel Brief about the book: I started early one morning transferring the ant village. The time has come. This matter is no longer postponable. I was peeling successive layers, shovel after shovel, until the handcart was full. Suddenly, the shovel hit something that made a ringing sound. After lifting another batch of pine needles and ants, I realized it was one of Ariette's empty bottles. Inside it was a paper roll. I pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a picture of us both, taken in the last days of our relationship, when we were young... I turned the picture over, and Ariette had drawn on the back a map representing my two islands. And she wrote underneath: We have reached this point. I went and sat in the kitchen, immersed for a long time in contemplating the picture. Then I continued transferring the ants toward their new life. In the evening, everything was over. The ant village had been moved. I went for a walk on my island. The migrating birds hovered over the sea. It was as Ariette had written. We had reached this point.