Annus horribilis

Annus horribilis is the year when Adele Carrera’s thread-related disturbance returned, a crisis that left Marco Carrera fearful for her stability even after it passed. The episode becomes a measure of both the vulnerability of the family and the quiet, exhausting care through which Marco tries to keep their shared world intact.

The Crisis and Its Aftermath

During the annus horribilis, the thread that Adele had perceived as connecting her back to a wall reappeared in Munich. It disappeared definitively after she moved to Florence, and for the following nine years she showed no sign of losing touch with reality. The contrast matters: the disturbance was neither a continuing condition in those years nor something Marco could simply forget. Its return remained part of how he understood his daughter’s fragility and watched over her.

Marco’s Care and Unease

Marco’s feelings toward Adele were layered. He loved her more than anything, and after taking her back into his care he sacrificed practically everything for her. He also pitied her, thinking of the state her mother had been reduced to, and felt guilty that he had not been able to give Adele the ordinary life every child deserved. His worry about her stability survived the disappearance of the thread: the nine years without further signs of detachment offered reassurance, but did not erase the memory of the crisis.

The Years That Followed

Marco describes the nine years after the crisis as a formidable block of time, lived almost without pause. He worked, rose at dawn, shopped and cooked, cared for Adele and his parents, and managed the many small obligations surrounding them. During the same stretch he lost and found Luisa Lattes, abandoned his academic career, watched his parents fall ill and die, and became definitively estranged from his brother. Against that accumulation of loss, the daily labor of caring for Adele gave him a new strength and pride.

Meaning Within the Family Story

The year’s importance lies not only in the disturbance’s return, but in the lasting demands it placed on Marco’s attention. He held together a small, fragile world while knowing it could not remain unchanged forever. His care for Adele thus joins practical routine to an awareness of loss: the crisis recedes, but its memory helps explain both his vigilance and the sense of purpose he found in accompanying the people and things entrusted to him through change.