Advanced search in the New Italian Books catalog

Skip to content Skip to footer

It’s the summer of 1991. Daniele is seventeen and this is his first vacation on his own with his friends: two weeks away from home to live at the fullest between beaches, clubs, alcohol, and girls. But there is something he forgot to take into consideration: himself. All it takes is a minor inconvenience on a mid-August night and Daniele decides to leave his friends behind and continue the journey on foot by himself from the Adriatic Riviera to Rome.

Free from distractions and social rehearsals, and rendering himself defenseless to the beauty of nature, which fills him both with joy and torment, he might be able to discover the reason for the anxiety that has always pricked and prodded him. Accompanied by a piece of luggage as heavy as a block of marble, Daniele sets off. He is forced to overcome his shyness on the road and ask people for help, for something to eat or a place to spend the night. And in doing so, he will meet people along the way, some consumed by loneliness but still capable of feats, some on the brink of madness, some defeated by life, some incorrigible bullies. And he will find love in Emma’s blue eyes. But above all, Daniele will find himself, in an intense and silent dialogue in which the author skillfully imbues a seventeen-year-old’s need to devour the world, to understand everything, especially ourselves: assessing our strengths, understanding what we are made of, what excites us and what could make us burn out. A journey that will initiate him into the greatest form of art: the art of meeting people.


Daniele Mencarelli (born in Rome in 1974) lives in Ariccia. In 2018, he made his debut with the well acclaimed La casa degli sguardi, followed in 2020 by Tutto chiede salvezza (Premio Strega Giovani 2020), that will be adapted in a Netflix series to be released in 2022 and the rights of which have been sold to UK+US/Europa Editions, Germany/Fischer Verlag, France/ Globe Editions.

© 2020 NEW ITALIAN BOOKS  redazione@newitalianbooks.it