Una cosa stupida

On the cusp of adulthood, Adriana Franco finds herself without any points of reference. She has been catapulted into a city where she feels like an unwelcome guest; she is light years away from her past, her friends, and her father, with whom she shares a talent for music, although she experiences it in a completely different way. She writes articles for Brush, a glossy magazine that hides promotional pieces for record labels and brands behind disruptive opinion pieces. Everything seems “fake” and superficial to her: even her apparently “cool” and enviable job is barely enough to cover her rent for a shared room and her Esselunga groceries. Day after day, the girl harbors a seething rage that is on the verge of exploding. Because, when nothing makes sense anymore, the only thing left is to do something stupid. Something extreme. Alice Valeria Oliveri’s latest novel is a diary of disillusionment, a story as sharp as its protagonist’s voice, a tale about the compromises of a generation that grew up with advertising, deceived by a future that for many of us exists only on a screen.