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Codini Donna is the name with which the protagonist of this story introduces himself to the world. Dressed as an altar boy, he decides to run away from the summer school camp he is being confined to during a big party he has no wish to attend. His accomplice is Andra, who doesn’t speak and wears a majorette costume. The night is long and populated by bizarre encounters. Amid nocturnal dances and chases in the dark, the two kids go in search of a series of messiahs, people who can save us. However it’s not so easy to distinguish friend from foe at night. Rodento, Mazurka, the creepy Barbara Zagaglia, Asmodeo the dog, the delicate Ortenzia… Who are they? Whose side are they on? Perhaps it’s all just a nightmare, a hallucination. But Andra can finally face the man who took away her voice and her dreams, and Codini can speak to his father, at last. The rising new day won’t necessarily be better, but will be different for sure.


Matteo Corradini was born in 1975. He is a Hebraist and a writer. He won 2018 Andersen Award, and has edited the latest Italian version of The Diary of Anna Frank, published by Rizzoli. Among his literary works, La repubblica delle farfalle, a story set in the Theresienstadt ghetto.

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