The Children’s Train (2019) by Viola Ardone is an Italian novel based on true events.

In 1946, Antonietta, an impoverished single mother, arranges for her only child, her son Amerigo, to travel from Naples to northern Italy to live with a host family in Modena during the winter.

This was part of the ‘trains of happiness’ initiative organized by the Italian Communist Part to support poor southern families still devastated from WWII.

Amerigo reluctantly joins the ‘trains of happiness’.

After he returns home to Antonietta having been away for a few months, Amerigo decides he is better off with Derna in Modena and he returns to live with her.