This is the last photo I took of my book-writing journey. My wife and kid sit outside the frame, on the right side of the picture. He has chickenpox and an onset of pneumonia, she hasn't slept for days (and so did I). Medicine all around, anti-dehydration powder, paracetamol, thermometers, are lost and found every hour. We eat when we can, mostly pasta, and we are exhausted. But I absolutely have to finish the last draft to send it to print, so I just work when I can, during quiet moments while the kid is asleep or resting.
At some point in the evening I take this photo, and press send on the last email to my publisher. I can't really enjoy the moment, nor celebrate. I just stand and go sit with my wife and son, to talk about his breathing, which sounds so shallow.
I took many beautiful photos of me writing: my laptop caressed by the autumn sunlight, a cappuccino on the table; on a train, while travelling for work, while the Dutch countryside swings by; while the snow falls outside, in the Dolomites; and many more. But this one is the most meaningful to me.
Because it's the last, for sure, but also because it's real, and fully representative of the train wreck this book-writing adventure has been, at times. It started 2 years ago, when I went to Round Robin Editrice with the idea of a collection of stories of cartoonists in danger. They believed it could work, and I made it work. It was fun, unnerving, moving, tiring, exciting, and it put me in touch with so many brave cartoonists.
Before telling you "go buy it if you read Italian" (yes, it's written in Italian), I'll just say that I wouldn't have been able to write it without my wife. I will thank everyone else later, but Maaike van Heijningen comes first. She held my hand as she does with our son, while he and I were learning to walk.
Now, if this post doesn't convince you to buy the book, I don't know what will! Here's the link: https://www.ibs.it/canarini-storie-di-cartoonist-che-libro-emanuele-del-rosso/e/9791254850688