Silvana Meloni
1938. Letizia is interred in the insane asylum of Cagliari. Through her eyes, the truth that lies beyond the four walls of her captivity are revealed to the reader as the story unfolds. Presumed dead by her family, it is not until the 50s that they begin to search for her. Only after overcoming multiple hurdles is her illegitimate son, Toni, a devoted lawyer, able to help bring her back home. Alternating between their perspectives, the novel conveys the story of this controversial man, always ready to take the side of the underdogs, even at the cost of his own freedom. Every injustice Toni finds himself facing in the turbulent protest years of the 1960s reveals a man who, much like his biological mother, stands up to the system in order to affirm the principles of liberty and justice that post-war Italy had founded itself on. Bad Weed is the story of a double rebellion, a barred gaze much like the windows of an asylum; a distant bond, that does not falter in the face of time or institutional interdictions, able to overcome every limit and fight against everything and everyone – especially in the conformist world that would rather people be defeated, crushed, convicted for insanity.
