Children of Freshwater. We Lost the River, We Could No Longer Find It is the book by Mauro Gambin, published by Tracciati Editore, which is presented for the first time in Este and introduced by Antonio Mazzetti.
The work derives from the experience of those who grew up along the Adige, regarded not only as a natural element but also as a true tool of education, capable of influencing language, habits, fears, and identity.
More than a memoir or a simple narrative about a territory, the book reflects on what happens when a landscape ceases to be central in the life of a community and becomes almost invisible. The river does not merely provide a backdrop: it organizes thought, bringing to the surface memories, stories, and figures tied to water and the land.
At the center of the reflection is the relationship between landscape and culture. The Adige has generated a specific lexicon and a unique understanding of water, passed down through terms and definitions that helped navigate an ever-changing environment. Language thus becomes a form of memory and cultural survival.
The people who populate the book – fishermen, inventors, seekers, and marginal figures – are not individual protagonists but embodiments of a way of living in the territory. The river transforms into a human archive that preserves childhood, labor, environmental changes, and traces of peasant civilization.
Children of Freshwater is not a nostalgic tale: it explores the gradual distancing of communities from their landscape and the fragile link between memory, belonging, and identity.
