Nicola Lagioia

La città dei vivi

La ferocia

For fans of Truman Capote and Emmanuel Carrere "Psychogeography at its most perceptive."— Financial Times In March 2016, in an apartment on the outskirts of Rome, two "ordinary" young men brutally tortured and murdered twenty-two-year-old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves across Rome and beyond. After the crime comes to light, Lagioia begins investigating the crime by meeting with the victim's family and corresponding with one of the killers. It soon becomes clear, however, that to investigate this crime means to descend into the darkest corners of Rome and of the human psyche. Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, economic grievances and identity crises to locate the breaking point, the point after which anything is possible. Sharp, hypnotic, devastating, The City of The Living is not just the story of a crime, but of human nature itself: the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free, between who we are and who we can become.

A literary chronicle narrating one of the most vicious crimes in recent Roman history

The City of the Living

Riportando tutto a casa

The passenger. Per esploratori del mondo

Roma

Occidente per principianti

Christian Raimo

storie di questo tempo

La qualità dell'aria

This Strega Prize winner “ticks all the boxes of a thriller while also being a masterfully written, baroque, many-faceted depiction of modern Italy” (The Spectator). Bari, southern Italy: On a stifling summer night, on the outskirts of town, a young woman named Clara, daughter of the region’s most prominent family of real estate developers, stumbles naked, dazed, and bloodied down a major highway. Her death will be deemed a suicide. Her estranged half-brother, however, cannot free himself from her memory or the questions surrounding her death, and the more he learns about Clara’s life, the more he reveals the moral decay at the core of his family’s ascent to social prominence. Winner of the 2015 Strega Prize, Italy’s preeminent prize for fiction, Ferocity is at once an intimate family saga, a cinematic portrait of the moral and political corruption of an entire society, and a “gripping” tale of suspense (The Irish Times). “Biting social commentary as well as edge-of-seat reading.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Allows the mystery to slowly and captivatingly resolve while offering a layered portrait of contemporary Italian life and the abuses of power that money can excuse.” —Publishers Weekly “Complex, darkly absorbing and mysterious literary fiction.” —Booklist

A Novel

Ferocity

Un lui, una lei, una Roma contemporanea, la classica storia d'amore che potrebbe ricominciare; ma il confidente del protagonista, fra partite a scacchi e tazze di caffè al bar, è... Lev Tolstoj. Con un linguaggio serrato ed elegante, un'ironia feroce, un continuo sovvertimento dei piani narrativi, Lagioia si diverte a trasformare la più convenzionale delle trame in «una macchina per la distruzione di cliché letterari» che non risparmia "Guerra e pace", le madeleine di Proust, il mito della droga e quello del ritorno all'infanzia: un'originalissima prova di talento in cui si mescolano lo sperimentalismo europeo e il postmoderno americano.

Tre sistemi per sbarazzarsi di Tolstoj. (Senza risparmiare se stessi)

"A family wrecked by patriarchal stranglehold; a daughter who both defends and defies her father; and the deep rottenness of a society that bends low to power...Make this work biting social commentary as well as edge-of-seat reading...A Rich and readable cautionary tale for strong-minded readers." -Library Journal, starred review "A mesmerizing exploration of failure, resilience, and profound, multifaceted loss." -Kirkus "This oblique kaleidoscopic approach allows the mystery to slowly and captivatingly resolve while offering a layered portrait of contemporary Italian life and the abuses of power that money can excuse." -Publishers Weekly "Complex, darkly absorbing and mysterious literary fiction [...] Lagioia's prose-in Shugaar's translation-depicts a family living far from the ease it projects; loyalties and betrayals painted in shades of gray; and a violently alive setting that plays off its characters." -Booklist "A deeply satisfying read all its own...A Page-turner, sure, but smart, smart, smart." -Words Without Borders "[I]ntricately planned...Renders moral and political corruption's rampant and universal prevalence." -BOMB magazine "This sumptuous (prose) (...) quickly wields allegory, social realism, domestic drama, and myth to create a layered and expansive novel." -Chicago Review of Books "A work of startling energy and structural precision, an ambitious novel whose linguistic brilliance is frequently at odds with the twists and turns of Michele's quest for the truth." -Financial Times "[Ferocity] ticks all the boxes of a thriller while also being a masterfully written, baroque, many-faceted depiction of modern Italy." -The Spectator "Ferocity is a portrait of a family tragedy, but also at its heart explores two competing visions of humanity: one ferocious and deterministic, the other transcendent and free-willed." -The Guardian "Lagioia writes vividly and conjures up an atmosphere of menace with great skill." -The Mail on Sunday "Lagioia is one of the most interesting Italian authors alive today." -Michele De Mieri, Domenica del Sole 24 Ore "Lagioia brilliantly demonstrates the folly of his characters: rather than describing them from the outside, he constructs his narrative by oscillating unceasingly between past and future, premonition and regret." -Emanuele Trevi, Corriere della Sera "A story about family, about wealth, about Italians, about a humanity that is obscenely spent and confounded. A Powerful, supremely well-crafted novel." -Goffredo Fofi, Internazionale "There's something Balzacian about Ferocity (and something that puts one in mind of Franzen's The Corrections). IT digs beneath current events, inhabiting a zone that is more opaque and ambiguous than the nightly news." -Paolo di Paolo, TuttoLibri "Nicola Lagioia's latest novel opens with a scene that is hypnotically, devastatingly beautiful." -Massimo Onofri, Avvenire "This novel reminds one of the Greek tragedies and those ineluctable questions about the relationship between choice and destiny." -Luca Illetterati, Alias

In een warme voorjaarsnacht loopt een jonge vrouw midden op de provinciale weg. Ze is naakt en zit onder het bloed. Als ze een paar uur later levenloos bij een parkeergarage wordt gevonden, komt aan het licht wie ze is: Clara Salvemini, de oudste dochter van de invloedrijkste aannemer ter plaatse, die zichzelf wijsmaakt dat hij alles voor zijn kinderen doet maar uiteindelijk alles en iedereen kapotmaakt. Alle betrokkenen zeggen dat het zelfmoord is, maar klopt dat wel? Wat had Clara te maken met de zaken van haar vader? En kan haar band met haar broers en zusje – met name met Michele, de schuwe, labiele, opstandige halfbroer – bij haar dood een beslissende rol hebben gespeeld? Tegen de achtergrond van de rijke buitenwijken in Bari ensceneert Nicola Lagioia met zijn oorspronkelijke beeldentaal het drama van een gezin dat tussen overdaad en ondergang balanceert. Zijn suggestieve stijl zuigt de lezer een labyrint in van emoties, geheimen en onthullingen: een confrontatie met verbijsterende wreedheid.

De wreedheid

"Ore due e trenta del pomeriggio, Arturo mi invita a un pranzo di lavoro. Siamo in un noto ristorante di piazza del Popolo i cui prezzi sul menù, sommati tra di loro, danno più o meno il quintuplo delle mie entrate mensili".

Un milione di euro

Eiskalter Süden

A combination of Gone Girl and Franzen’s Freedom filtered through the fierce Mediterranean vision of Elena Ferrante Southern Italy, the 1980s. On a hot summer’s night under a full moon, far from the outlying neighbourhoods of a southern Italian city, Clara stumbles naked, dazed, and bloodied down a major highway. When she dies no-one is able to say exactly how or why, but her brother cannot free himself from her memory or from the questions surrounding her death. The more he learns about her life and death, the more he uncovers the moral decay at the core of his family’s ascent to social prominence. At once an intimate family saga, a history of an entire region, and a portrait of the moral and political corruption of a whole society, Ferocity is a cinematic suspense novel that addresses vital social questions.

Nicola Lagioia

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