Have you ever dreamed of being alive at your funeral? That’s the main theme of the novel written by Paolo Genovese “Il primo giorno della mia vita”. The protagonists are four people with suicidal intent: Emily, a young ex-athlete girl who is disable after a bad injury during a competition; Aretha, a police woman who lost her child; Daniel, a young boy suffering from diabetes and bullied at school; Napolen, a motivator who has no apparent reason to feel hopeless and depressed. All of them want to end up their lives, but, right in the moment they commit suicide, they meet a stranger who offers them the opportunity of seeing their future, as if they were still alive. The man picks up all of
them in an old-style station wagon and guides them in a journey where they assist to their funeral and see their future. Aretha, Emily and Daniel begin to be friends, and they find out that there is a lot of love and opportunities in their future lives, despite the sufferings they are experiencing at the moment. They eventually find the strength to face their difficulties with new hope in the future and decide to take the chance to came back and live their lives. Napoleon, the only character who apparently doesn’t live any difficult existential condition, but is probably affected by major depression, doesn’t change his mind and decides to go on with his suicidal project. At the end of the story, Napoleon takes the place of the mysterious man and guides people who are going to commit suicide through the same experience of seeing their future lives, just as he did earlier.