Italy literature summaries - 2023

Short summary - La sposa Sirena
Gianni Rodari

An earthling ended up on a planet with an underwater civilization, got married there and went with his wife to earth. A year later, the lovers sewed valves into themselves, allowing the earthling to breathe under water, and his wife - in the air.

In the retelling, events are ordered chronologically. In the original, the reader finds out what happened to the expedition, not at the beginning of the story, but during the communication of the protagonist with aliens.

An earth expedition arrived on the ocean planet Sirenida and got caught in a storm. Only Leo survived.

👨🏻‍🚀Leo - an earthling, scientist, member of an interstellar expedition, friendly and inquisitive.

At the bottom of the ocean of Sirenida, a civilization of amphibian people was discovered. They made contact with Leo and took him to a huge underwater city.

The Sirenians could read minds and already knew what had happened to the Earth expedition. Leo settled with Borgo.

👴🏻Borgo - professor, famous scientist on Sirenida, studies fish, very hospitable.

Borgo said that this wasn't the first time Earthlings had met Sirenians. Sirens from Homer's Odyssey were also from their people. Many millennia ago, "a terrible war broke out" on Sirenis. The vanquished left the planet and settled on Earth, "in the warm waters of the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece and Italy."

A few centuries after this war on Serenis ceased forever, and the descendants of the exiles were able to return home. Borgo came from a family that once lived off the coast of Sicily.

Leo traveled to underwater cities, met with scientists, and participated in holidays. The Sirenians could not breathe air, but they had large supplies of oxygen, which they used to purify the water, and Leo "could easily replenish his oxygen tank."

Leo was torn from the raging feelings in him. On the one hand, he missed the Earth, on the other hand, he did not want to part with Noah.

👩🏻Noah - Borgo's daughter, beautiful and cheerful, Leo's beloved.

Borgo found a way out: he advised young people to get married and go to Earth. The council of the sages of Sirenida decided that in this way a connection would arise between the two planets. Who knows, maybe earthlings will want to learn how to live in water.

Leo and Noah got married and traveled to Earth in a "flying aquarium".

We will not describe how surprised people were by him, we will not say anything about the headlines of newspapers, interviews on television, meetings with scientists and members of the government. All this is easy to imagine.

Close ties have been established between Sirenida and the Earth. Tourists, scientists and guests constantly shuttled between the planets.

The newlyweds settled in a villa with two pools, one of which was in the living room. There Noah rested from the mask.

A few days before the wedding anniversary, Noah went home for a short time. Leo, meanwhile, decided to surprise her. With a group of scientists, he created a valve that allows an earthling to breathe underwater, and he was the first to sew it into his shoulder.

When Noah returned, it was revealed that she, too, had sewn in a valve created by Serenid's scientists to allow her to breathe air. So the newlyweds made each other the same gifts.

And together they became something that had never been before. This has always happened and will always happen.