Marta’s obsession with hand hygiene

Some obsessions like to hide in little things, in everyday gestures. The most common, the most innocent. Like the act of washing your hands. For Marta, protagonist of the novel by Simona Nuvolari An unequal fight, published by Rizzoli, is something more than a hygienic measure. A ritual of defense against a threatening world, rather.

She washes her hands before touching food, a dress brought by one of the children to be washed in turn, and then washes them again after touching a family member or a stranger, if she is not sure what she has. touched, what he has come into contact with, what possible chain of infections he is carrying.