Novel N'entre pas dans mon âme avec tes chaussures Paola Pigani (2013)

Around the fire, the men of the clan look sombre in the spring of 1940. A decree forbids the free movement of nomads and the caravans are at a standstill. In wartime, the Manouches were considered dangerous. Moreover, the Kommandantur of Angoulême will soon demand that all those from Charente be gathered in the camp of Alliers. Alba enters with her family in the carefree spirit of childhood. At fourteen, she is far from imagining that she will spend six long years there, punctuated by the morning roll call, the blue soup from being so clear, the return of the men after their day’s work… It is in this suspended time, far from the forests and the horses, that she will become a woman in the midst of the madness of men… Don’t enter my soul with your shoes, says the proverb: one does not enter the Gypsies’ home with impunity, neither in their present nor in their memory… But Paola Pigani enters with a light step. But Paola Pigani enters with a light step, and with a free and fair voice, she brings their words, their pain and their pride to life.