Short novel set at the start of Mussolini’s era (1925) in the swampy Po plain, where a high number of children has died under mysterious circumstances. Carlo, a trained doctor-inspector working for the Ministry of Health is sent by his boss in Rome to a conglomerate of poor villages North of Ravenna, to find out what is going on.

Why him, he wonders, but as a native of the area he is supposed to speak the local dialect. When he arrives he first finds out that all key informants have died. The Health inspector, the District health officer, and when he arrives, the local GP, who is found hanging from a rope at his home. The poor inhabitants in the villages all depend for their livelihood on their wet surroundings: rice growing, reed cutting, and fishing. Moreover they are drenched in local superstitions, like the belief in some female monster, Borda, whose hunger for human flesh has to be satisfied to ensure the well-being of the majority. Malaria is a problem in this environment, and Carlo soon discovers that the Health inspectorate has been negligent with malaria containment measures. Despite having been warned about the local fascist leader, Bellenghi, Carlo finds he cannot avoid this omnipresent thug and his gang of followers. Meanwhile, through the childish eyes of Giuseppe, we as readers discover the bodies of children lurking below the surface of the marsh.

Carlo, happily married in Rome, succumbs to the charms of a local beauty, Elsa, who reluctantly breaks the omerta, which surrounds the mysterious ‘malaria’ victims, after a retired GP has revealed the cause of all misery, at the risk of his own life. The novel exudes a dark, murky atmosphere and is mainly written from Carlo’s POV in a somewhat rigid, wooden style. ( )