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Falling in love when adults is always difficult: that unreasonable feeling exposes us and compells us to make important decisions. That is what happens to the main characters of this novel: since the moment they meet, Iole’s and Sandro’s lives start turning around one question, how to protect their happiness from the passing of time. They think they have an answer, or at least a starting point: they know what they do not want. They want to escape boredom, but without disrupting their lives. So they set a 30- year pact and a decalogue in order to experiment the charms of undercover love without giving up their marriages and children.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 STREGA PRIZE WITH LE STANZE DELL’ADDIO

CINEMA/TV RIGHTS OPTIONED

“The novel tries obsessively, and therefore desperately, to free clandestine love from imperfections.” Francesco Piccolo, La Lettura – Corriere della Sera

“The Rules of Lovers stands as a fresco of the Italian bourgeoisie ‘with few qualities’ at the beginning of the new millennium and as a literary investigation on the possibility of a great love today.” Il Libraio


Yari Selvetella (Rome, 1976) published the novels La banda Tevere (2015) and Le stanze dell’addio (Bompiani, 2018), longlisted for the Strega Prize, and the poetry collection La maschera dei gladiatori (2014). He works as a TV author for Rai Uno.

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