Munich

Munich is a recurring setting in the family history of Marco Carrera and Marina Molitor: Marina moves there after separating from Marco, Adele later returns to Italy to live with her father, and Marina’s subsequent relationship brings Munich into view again through her lover’s wife and daughters.

Marina’s Move and Adele’s Return

After making slanderous accusations against Marco as she left, Marina moved to Germany with Adele. The move did not last for Adele: the following year she returned to Italy and went to live with Marco. Munich thus stands at the center of a failed attempt to relocate the child along with the marriage’s rupture; Adele’s return restores her home with her father, while Marina remains abroad.

Marina’s Later Life

Marina stayed in Munich after the separation and later separated from the father of her other child as well. He could no longer work and moved in and out of treatment facilities. By then, he had been seeing Adele only once a year, spending two weeks with her in summer at a kind of sanatorium in Austria; he had not seen her for several years.

Munich also figures in Marina’s relationship with a Lufthansa commander. The married man, who had two teenage daughters and a house in Munich as well as a home in Rome and one in the Austrian Alps, met Marina in Rome according to the schedule of his flights. Their affair was part of the precarious life Marina described to Dr. Carradori, a relationship maintained alongside the family ties and separations that Munich represents.