Farewell to Ada D’Adamo, candidate for the Witch with a book about her daughter

Time.news – Ada D’Adamo died at the age of 53 the day after being included in the shortlist of 12 candidates for the Strega Prize. Those who knew her know well that she didn’t care much about being a candidate, finalist or maybe winner because she has always been reluctant to receive awards. But her book, ‘Come d’aria’, is the extraordinary testimony of what the relationship between a mother and a disabled child can be.

Always linked to the art world – first as a dancer, then as a communicator – Ada D’Adamo had found in writing the best way to give shape to what she had dedicated her life to in the last sixteen years: the daughter Daria, born pluridisable. It is to her that the book owes its title and to her being destined to remain forever suspended between heaven and earth, like the air, precisely, because she is unable to move except in someone’s arms.

Just two days ago we celebrated the nomination of his book for the Witch
Today we mourn his passing: Ada d’Adamo is gone. She left tonight surrounded by her dearest loved ones. A piece of our heart goes with her

— Elliot (@Elliotedizioni) April 1, 2023

A true and exciting book, but also very light, as light was Ada D’Adamo, of that lightness that perhaps she had found in dance as a child or that perhaps dance had found in her. The same lightness of Daria, told in the book that despite everything keeps her smile and optimism, in contrast with the heaviness of a body unable to lift itself off the ground.

‘Come d’aria’ was born from a letter that in 2008, when her daughter was two years old, the author wrote to Corrado Augias. A confession neither bitter nor painful, but fully awaremade on the occasion of one of the many moments in which the law 194 is questioned.

“Abortion is a painful choice for those who make it, but it is a choice and must be guaranteed” she wrote, “Even if it has turned my life upside down, I adore my wonderful imperfect daughter, but if I had the choice that day I would have chosen the therapeutic abortion.

Words that had prompted Elena Stancanelli, who had read them, to contact her to urge her to tell her experience. A collected invitation, but with the times that require stories like this. It had taken him ten years to write the book, now edited by Elliot and made it to the Witch.

A legacy that has important examples in the recent past: one of all the wonderful ‘Born twice’ by Giuseppe Pontiggia. A story that needed to be told.