Il truffatore

When Fabio Montari and Angelo Cantuzzi meet, the former is a young banker on the rise who has just been left by his wife, while the latter is an elderly entrepreneur who has made a fortune but cannot forgive himself for failing to protect his family from a tragedy that occurred years earlier. Fabio is unscrupulous, handling investments for well-known people in the city, often idle heirs to fortunes that have been handed down in that small province of northern Italy since time immemorial. They ask him to help them keep their privileges, but he is thirsty for redemption and begins to defraud them. At first, it’s just a few thousand euros, almost out of spite, but it soon becomes an obsession. Stealing is all too easy: breakfast in the countryside, a signature on a form… Is it possible that no one at the bank will notice? Meanwhile, Fabio and Angelo become friends, partners: the old man sees in the young man the son he lost, the young man sees in the old man the father he has always sought. However, each hides something from the other: Fabio cannot confess to being a thief, Angelo hesitates to confide in him about his grief. But life moves fast, and when Angelo feels his days are numbered, he entrusts Fabio with what is most dear to him: his elderly wife and a daughter marked by grief, unable to fend for herself. It is a gamble that will lead to the most terrible betrayal. After the success of La salita dei giganti (The Rise of the Giants), Francesco Casolo – drawing on the lesson of “do not mock, do not pity, do not condemn, but understand” – delves into the mind of a con man and writes a tense and highly topical novel, loosely based on real events, which highlights the flaws in the banking system and subtly raises the question: who can we really trust?