“Dangerous, sad, and melancholy situations made me shake, as if life only reveals itself in drama: naked, intact, moving.” Each of us has known, if only for a moment, the irresistible pull of the abyss. Daria Benardi knows how to expose it with honesty and brilliant irony, revealing its contradictions and our existence, where everything can both save and damn us, from our mother to a book we accidentally read. Starting with the literary passions that shaped her, with her intelligent, profound, and light writing, Daria Benardi confesses in an intimate way—from teenage lies to fatal love, even recurring melancholy—narrating the courageous and tireless adventure of self-knowledge through their gray areas. And write a hymn to because this is what we most desperately seek between the pages of books: the discovery that others are like us. A training diary, a beauty essay, a shameful leap of faith toward the power of words, this book is an astonishing and unexpected journey made up of questions, insights, and secrets, stimulating and soothing, making you smile and move.