The century marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era opens with a feudal legacy stemming from the internal divisions of France and England, still embroiled in the Hundred Years' War.Between mutual betrayals and the mystical figure of Joan of Arc, this historical transition marks the arrival of gunpowder in Europe, marking one of the world's epochal changes.Along with it, the invention of movable type printing and the fall of the Eastern Empire pave the wa...

The relationship between the Papacy and power that marked the period of the Avignon Papacy and the conditions that would spark the Hundred Years' War form the backdrop to the events of a French family of Norman origin torn between the concreteness of money and the revolutionary ideas of William of Ockham.These divergent paths were the seeds of future great rivalries between France and England, which began to emerge in the fourteenth century.The middle of the century was domin...

The vain attempt to reconcile knowledge, expressed in philosophical, theological, artistic, and scientific forms, with the harshness of history characterizes the history of the twelfth century.On the one hand, there are magnificent examples, such as the Norman cultural renaissance of Sicily under Roger II, up to the great intellectual peaks of Anselm of Aosta, Peter Abelard, and Averroes. On the other, there are the eternal imperial struggles against the Papacy or the emerging commu...

The great power of human culture and knowledge, expressed in multiple aspects of daily life and speculative reflection, did not seem sufficient to stem the violence of arms and the prevalence of war in a century, the eighth, which saw the peak of the Islamic Caliphate and the Lombard kingdom's expansion, while an intense unifying drive attempted to create a new Empire after centuries of fragmentation.This dichotomy underpinned the triple vicissitudes of various families who, from on...

The new course of history after the final fall of the Western Roman Empire is revisited through the stories of three sets of twins, set in different places and contexts.Alongside a fleeting desire for restoration emanating from the East, which saw the great splendor of the Justinian era, but also the definitive collapse due to the plague and the endless wars that tore apart what remained of the Empire, the new era was characterized by the consolidation of Frankish power and the inva...

Three distinct portraits of tenth-century life unfold chronologically, from the Heian era in Japan, marked by the rise of the Fujiwara clan, to the rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire under Otto I of Saxony, and finally to the Viking spirit of adventure that reached the farthest reaches of northern Iceland and Greenland.Amid these events, several families of middle and lower social standing operate, each with their own desire for greatness and expansion, leveraging the qualities and ta...

The fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire due to internal struggles among Charlemagne's heirs and the arrival of Norman history marked the unfolding of events in the ninth century, through a relentless succession of hopes and immediate disillusionments regarding a past that was not destined to repeat itself.At the same time, the individual families belonging to these peoples tended to follow events, following the decisions of others. The Empire crumbled, and with it, the history of...

The first half of the thirteenth century is characterized by the sudden rise of the greatest empire ever.The Mongols of Genghis Khan overwhelm entire civilizations, but their military supremacy will give rise to an ephemeral world, one that a family of horse breeders will understand well, suspended between tradition and the necessary integration with superior cultures defeated in battle.In Europe, the central part of the century is dominated by the intellectual figure of Thom...

As the eleventh century unfolded, the clash of civilizations became increasingly evident.Starting from the great cultural and enlightened era associated with the studies of Ibn Sina, under the Shiite Islamic dynasty of the Buwayhids, destined to succumb to the blows of the Seljuks, the story moves to Normandy, following the vicissitudes of the battles in France and then in England during the reign of William the Conqueror.The century ended with a blaze of violence, unleashed ...

In a world where nothing is as it seems and where there are no personal ties, overwhelmed by the interests and ideologies that span thirty years of Vietnam's history, Lien lives three distinct existences, under the command of others, becoming a conscious instrument of pain and of death.Working in the shadows, at the secret of his own conscience, a fourth path will try to wedge itself with extreme difficulty.

The vortex of life unfolds in multiform verses, sometimes following random rotations or precise directions, as is typical of the nature of the wind.Sixteen characters alternate against the background of their single day, representing completely detached cultures and sensibilities, ages and experiences, perhaps united among themselves only by an invisible, elusive and eternally changing harmony.

Over thirty years of turbulence and violence lacerate Mexican society in the first half of the twentieth century and the life of Benedicta, a nurse by vocation and by choice, with a continuous mixing of thoughts and passions, ideals and aspirations.Winners and losers torn to shreds, only dust will cover the memory of great deeds and small pettiness, as has been in her nature since time immemorial.