Quel maledetto Vronskij

Longlisted for Premio Strega 2022.

Flaiano Career Award 2021. Winner of Premio Mastercard Letteratura 2021.

“Please forgive me, I’m so tired. Don’t come looking for me.” This is all Giulia writes to her husband Giovanni, before disappearing into thin air. And now, he feels like a castaway in their empty house. Their love was made up of little things: breakfast in the morning, bread with butter and jam; a swift kiss before going to work and another one in the evening, when he came back from the typography with ink-stained fingers; the two of them hugging in the garden, among the roses she carefully prunes. After a lifetime together, they still hadn’t lost the will to make each other happy. Or so he thought. Searching for answers, Giovanni looks through Giulia’s books and picks out her favourite volume: Anna Karenina. He begins to read. Slowly, he is brought to believe that his wife has found another man, a fiery lover, a damned Vronsky. Bitter with jealousy, he locks himself in his typography, determined to create a unique copy of Tolstoy’s masterpiece with the finest paper and a leather cover, in the hope of one day making it his last pledge of love for Giulia. But life is no novel: it proceeds in gentle, unpredictable bursts. When the mystery of his wife’s disappearance unfolds, Giovanni begins to understand that there will always be something that escapes us, and that all we can do is just stop being afraid of it.

\’An authentic, intense, moving and, at times, indecipherable novel.Piersanti’s prose is clear and his account of daily life in its naked simplicity is meticulous and poetic.’ Robinson – la Repubblica 

\’If you are looking for a melancholic book that once finished leaves you surrounded by a brightining halo of happiness, the new novel by Claudio Piersanti is for you. TuttoLibri – La Stampa