At an undefined time, in an undefined place on earth, lived and lives a boy red of face and hair and therefore named Rosso Malpelo. He is poor, so poor that his father takes him along to work in the mines. One day his father dies, killed in a landslide, and Malpelo finds himself alone. Alone in the real sense because his mother remarries and moves away. Other children work in the mines, too, and Malpelo befriends Ranocchio who, unused to the hardships of mine working, winds up getting sick. |
