The Silver Castle

a novel

to Rita Guerricchio
con affetto

*

qui tocca anche a noi poveri la nostra parte di richezza

You can stand aloof from the sufferings of the world; you are free to do so and it expresses your nature; but perhaps that very aloofness is the one suffering you might have avoided.

— Kafka

Perhaps it would have been better for [Sanjay] if he had never seen the Silver Castle, never felt a guiding hand, never blinked at an unstained smile. Then he would not have missed these things. It is just possible, however, that the memory of his first visit to Long Ago sustained him. Imagination and energy are part of each other, and few of us, even though we live in circumstances far more favourable, would ever get to where we are going unless a picture of it, however inaccurate, was already in our minds. If we had to, we too would have to dodge the rain between rubbish dumps, on the long journey back to the taste of a cheese roll, the tang of sparkling water, trumpets that crackle and toe-nails stained with plums. We don't have to, but Sanjay did.