Every Promise — Andrea Bajani

When Sarah leaves him - heartbroken by their inability to conceive - Pietro reverts to a younger self, leaving the dishes unwashed, his bed unmade and the post unopened.

Soon afterwards, Sarah confesses that she is pregnant, but from a casual encounter. She comes to rely on Pietro's mother for support, leaving all three in a painful limbo, unable to move on or return to the way things were.

Into the void falls Olmo, an old man haunted by memories of war. At first he provides a distraction, but when he asks Pietro to travel to Russia on his behalf, to right a wrong from his past, he offers this most troubled of young men the chance of a new beginning.