A counter-history of Italy from the 1950s to the present day. After fifteen years of research, Bruno Arpaia constructs a compelling novel that weaves together events and stories of his adventurous investigations, brings together elusive characters, unresolved cases and uncomfortable truths, lays them bare and shows us that the most logical version of facts is not always the most truthful.

Towards the late 1950s, Tom il Greco was the head of the CIA in Rome. Throughout his long career, he had a hand in the most obscure secrets of international politics, from the Kennedy assassination to the apprehension of Che Guevara and the coup in Chile. There are, however, state secrets and political intrigues that even the shrewdest men cannot keep under control, and Tom knows this very well. Attacks that hit Italy’s resources hard in the field of electronics and nuclear energy, propelling it to its current decline. Secrets which, at this late stage, it no longer makes sense to conceal.

pp.288

A climate fiction, the story of a group of “environmental migrants” who escape from climate catastrophes and search for salvation.

In 2082, tens of thousands of people abandon an almost deserted Southern Europa and head to Scandinavia, which has become one of the very few territories with a mild climate that is favorable for the settlement of human beings. Among them is Livio Delmastro, an elderly professor of neuroscience who lost his wife and son sixteen years earlier because of the progressive climate changes and the dramatic social and political consequences that ensued from them. Alone now, Livio decides to leave, but he would really rather die than continue living. His story is intertwined with those of others who like him have paid guides and explorers in the hope of reaching the north. During their crossing of Switzerland and of the vast arid plateau of southern Germany, a few of his fellow travelers die of starvation, thirst or are killed by robbers. It is at this point that Livio realizes that he has a duty towards the world that is to save his few remaining companions.

pp.200

From a writer and close friend of Luis Sepúlveda, the public and private portrait of Lucho, a rebellious writer and a dreamer.

Following the death of the great Chilean writer, a few months ago, Bruno Arpaia draws an accurate, earnest portrait, as only one painted by a friend of thirty years and a colleague can be. His life, books, themes, obsessions and places, as well as his many friends: Sepúlveda is described as faithfully to the truth as possible in order to bring him even closer to his many readers and restore the memory of a life filled with formidable passions.

pp.176

A private story. A tight, thrilling novel that is not without subtle and resigned irony, about a son, a mother over ninety and a disease that ravages the memories that bring together many of the modern demons that torment us, and the attempts to defeat them.

Bruno Arpaia writes about himself: dealing with advancing age, with an ever-shrinking future, and his mother’s Alzheimer’s. It is a moving story of the disease, from the early symptoms to the relocation to an old people’s home, to the loss of the past. But it is also a touching reflection on disorientation at the time of Covid and war, on identity and the fear of death.

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