A Novel in Progress
Carbonari
Northern Italy, 1858–59 · published in episodes as it is written
Lombardy is occupied, the Carbonari are a memory everyone fears might not be dead, and on a farm near Lake Garda a young wife keeps a training she has never been able to explain — lessons from an old man named Gio, in a house with a well inside it.
Carbonari is being written in the open. Episodes appear here first, in text and audio, before there is a finished book. What you read is a living manuscript: strong, unfinished, and — through the Workshop and the Contributors’ Ledger — open to the hand of its readers, at the author’s discretion and under the contributor terms.
Begin with the prologue, in whichever voice you choose — the author’s, or Immel’s.
Prologue
The Well — in Immel’s voice
Night at the abandoned Danzia estate. Two people in a hidden room below the house, armed men above them — and an old memory from her childhood in that house.
Episode One
The Fence at Dusk — in Immel’s voice
A farm at dusk, a fence running down into the valley, and a daydream of flight. Then morning: the work, the ledger, and Karl. The story returns to its beginning.
The Fence at Dusk — in the author’s voice
The same episode, read by the man who wrote it.
Episode Two
The Builders — in Immel’s voice
A knock at the door before she is properly awake: Otto and his traveling builders, come to raise the new barns — and a steam harvester no one present can run. It needs an oiler. It needs Jonah Lucas. This episode appears in Immel’s voice.
Follow an edition on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (Immel’s voice) · Apple or Spotify (the author’s voice).