The stories were many-sometimes different, sometimes always the same-but all of them began in the distant year of 1938. All spoke of a house and a garden. All spoke of a blooming oleander.

In Carbonara, a small seaside village near Bari, an oleander tree marks the dreams and hardships of the Ventrella family. Agostino, a kind and noble man, planted it in the garden of their home when he brought his wife Anita from faraway Cerignola-known to all as "Marzala," the enchantress with magical powers. Beautiful and proud, skilled with herbs and her miraculous hands, Marzala soothes every kind of pain, rules the kingdom of her kitchen, and governs the lives of her three daughters: Rosetta, the eldest, distant and imposing like her mother; the shy Cornelia, with aristocratic beauty and honey-colored hair; and the youngest, Diamante, the wild tomboy who dreams of living free from all rules.

Amidst pots and pans and the fragrant aromas of caramelized lemons and delicious sauces, with the lively chatter of neighborhood women gossiping daily, Marzala distributes tasks and commands, sharp-tongued comments and punishments, intent on teaching her daughters what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother. In the difficult years that follow Agostino's sudden death, and as the war casts a heavy shadow over everything, Marzala-with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her stern gaze that almost never yields to tenderness-will also teach her daughters the art of survival in the face of the most unpredictable destiny...

With nostalgic tones and a passionate yet rugged writing style, Rosa Ventrella-"the Ferrante of Bari"-offers a powerful family saga of resilience and devotion. An unforgettable story about the fate and legacy of women, the mother-daughter bond, the quiet revolutions that shape our lives, and the happiness that it is never too late to seek.