Persecution

de Alessandro Piperno

It is the summer of 1986. Leo Pontecorvo, an internationally revered pediatric onocologist, is forty-eight. His beautiful wife, Rachel, is the devoted mother of Filippo and Samuel, two amiable, well adjusted pre-teens. In a sprawling villa on the outskirts of Rome, the Pontecorvos are gathered for dinner. In the living room, the evening news plays on the television. But nobody pays it any mind. That is, until Dr. Pontecorvo's name surfaces in a news item that will annihilate this moment of perfect intimacy and change the lives of the Pontecorvos forever.