A luminous collection of interwoven stories, 'Once in Europa' is a portrait of two worlds - a small Alpine village bound to the earth and by tradition, and the restless, future-driven culture that will invade it - at their moment of collision. The instrument of entrapment is love: the passion of a wilful shepherd for a shrewd bourgeois housewife; of a vital young woman for a dashing Russian who has come to work in the local factory; of a steadfast son for his aged mother.
Lives are lost and hearts are broken, and always, love is a transcending form of grace. In 'Once in Europe', it speaks as plainly and as movingly as a remembered language, creating a work of astonishing tenderness.
