Fa 15 anys, la néta de la Comtessa Lando-Continui va ser rescatada per un indigent alcohòlic just abans de morir ofegada en un canal de Venècia. Les lesions cerebrals que li va ocasionar aquell fet la condemnen a una immaduresa infantil permanent. La Comtessa està segura que lepisodi no va ser un accident i demana al comissari Guido Brunetti que trobi el culpable dhaver arruïnat la vida de la seva néta. És la vint-i-cinquena novel·la amb aquest protagonista. Lautora va guanyar lonzè premi de novel·la negra Pepe Carvalho el 2016.
In The Waters of Eternal Youth, the twenty-fifth instalment in the bestselling Brunetti series, our Commissario finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a crime at all. Brunetti is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of Brunetti's mother-in-law. Fifteen years ago the Contessa's teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment, but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and her life was never the same again. Once a passionate horse rider, Manuela, now aged thirty, cannot remember the accident, or her beloved horse, and lives trapped in an eternal youth. The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Out of a mixture of curiosity, pity and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a loving grandmother, Brunetti reopens the case. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart. The Waters of Eternal Youth is awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation, to housing, to new waves of African migrants, all circling the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood.
