Italy

Italy enters the novel not through a described landscape but through Fabrizio Collini’s recollection of home: in a quiet courtroom exchange, he invokes an Italian saying to express his doubts about revenge and victory. The country’s significance here is intimate and verbal, tied to the words Collini carries with him while confined in prison.

Italy as Home

After the court adjourns following new evidence, the courtroom slowly empties. Collini remains with Caspar Leinen, says that he does not think they have won, and explains that in Italy people say, “the dead don’t want revenge, it’s only the living who want it.” He adds that he sits in his cell thinking about the saying. Italy is thus identified as home through Collini’s own words, without further description of a particular place or of his life there.

The Saying and Its Afterlife

The exchange makes Italy the source of a phrase that reframes the trial’s apparent contest. Collini does not present the saying as proof that the case is settled; he uses it to voice uncertainty about what winning would mean when the dead cannot seek revenge and the living remain with its burden. Leinen calls the saying wise, and Collini repeats that judgment before standing to shake hands with him. In this scene, Italy’s narrative presence rests on the saying’s movement from home into the courtroom, where it gives shape to Collini’s thoughts about the dead, the living, and the limits of victory.