Teresa Battaglia appears to have at last lost her biggest challenge: the one against her illness, when she is found in the mountains, confused, with the mutilated body of a young man.

Has Inspector Teresa Battaglia really lost her biggest challenge? The one against her memory, her body and the disease that clouds her mind? So it would appear. Massimo Marini thinks so, too: after receiving an anonymous phone call, he rushes to a forest in the middle of the mountains, where a heinous crime may have been committed. There, he finds Teresa, confused and covered in the blood of a young man’s mutilated body in her arms. Who is he? And why is Teresa there? Massimo has no answers, only suspicions. His only certainty is that a crime scene is the last place where Teresa should be, because she has irreparably compromised and contaminated the evidence. But perhaps that’s not how things really stand…

English sample available

Ilaria Tuti – an author whose books have so far sold over 900,000 copies – returns to drawing from history in order to bring to light the experiences of the first British women surgeons during World War I, their fight for equality, as well as their dealings with the soldiers on the Western Front. The soldiers found in these women not only the healing of the body, but also rebirth through embroidery.

This book is about the meeting between the male world of war and the female world of healing.

Come vento cucito alla terra is the story of the first British women surgeons, a handful of pioneers, often militant suffragettes, forced to operate only in the London slums, in charitable establishments for women and children because they were not allowed to practise on men or to pursue a career. At the start of the First World War, in order to create a space for themselves in the male world and build up medical experience, they decided to leave for the battle fields of the Western Front and set up a hospital managed entirely by them in France. But this is also the story of the soldiers who were wounded and left invalids, who entered that female world thinking they were being sent there because there was no more hope for them, but who found there an opportunity for healing and redemption – partly through embroidery.

Come vento cucito alla terra is the story of the meeting between this apparently opposite worlds through two different points of view: that of Caterina – a surgeon, single mother of Italian origin – and that of Alexander, a British soldier – first a brave captain, then a patient made prisoner of his own body, but still a leader of men he must guide through a process of rebirth. And so he does, partly by picking up a sewing needle.

A short novel about rebirth and hope situated, in terms of plot, between Fiori sopra l’inferno and Ninfa dormiente. With extraordinary sensitivity, Ilaria Tuti has given to Luce della notte the story of Chiara, a special child who, on her arduous journey, meets the much-loved Teresa Battaglia, who is ready to help her.

Chiara had a dream and got very scared. Sing and count, she told herself in the dream, only the darkness wouldn’t go away. So Chiara let herself be guided through the woods by the invisible light of the night. Only she was very upset by what she found while digging at the roots of the tree. Maybe because it wasn’t really a dream. Perhaps it was the frightening reality. It’s just a few days before Christmas, the day Chiara is going to turn nine. Or rather the night the little girl will turn nine, because it’s been a long time since she has seen daylight.

A big heart is needed to help her little heart to stop trembling. This is why, just a few days after closing a gruelling and dangerous case, as well as discovering something she will have to keep to herself, Teresa Battaglia has no hesitation in getting involved. Perhaps this is because, in spite of everything, there’s still the heart of a child beating inside her. Just as it’s throbbing, in spite of himself, in the young Inspector Marini, since, for all his doubts and incomprehension, he decides to join Inspector Battaglia in what seems like a mad, senseless enquiry. That’s right – how can one even consider investigating a dream? Teresa knows – feels – however, that this frail, frightened and very brave little girl has stumbled on something real, genuine… and dreadful.

The rights for Luce della notte will be transferred to the Oncological Referral Centre in Aviano, for research on Ewing sarcoma.

The new, eagerly-awaited novel by a writer who, thanks to her both atmospheric and eerie settings, as well as a protagonist as imperfect as she is unforgettable, has conquered the hearts of over 500,000 readers.

Once again, Teresa Battaglia has to face a past marked by death – her own past, this time.

 

Chief Inspector Teresa Battaglia has been wondering about this for months but the moment has now come to tackle the most difficult question of her life and find an answer. Is her career really nearing its end because of her illness? What will happen to her? However, as is so often the case, the end represents a return to the beginning. When ghosts that have never truly been laid to rest emerge from the past, when an old voice of death comes to haunt her again, Teresa realises that she owes herself and to those around her a final act. The moment of reckoning is here.

A novel about an important, long-forgotten chapter of history. The story of Le Portatrici (Bearers), women of all ages who, during the First World War, in the theatre of war in Carnia, in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli, were called upon to help the men in the trenches by carrying up food supplies and ammunition first, then dead bodies down the mountain.

English sample available

The theatre of war of the Carnia region is a series of sharp peaks, defence lines isolated on the summits and thousands of young men driven to exhaustion. The command turns to the local population with a desperate plea for anyone to help them. The women from the neighbouring valleys respond to the appeal. Women of all ages, from thirteen to sixty, accustomed to hard work, and who, for centuries, have carried heavy wicker baskets on their backs, but are also used to a life of hardship that has forged resilient spirits and minds with exceptional moral fibre. Among them, there is brave Agata, who would sooner eat cheese crusts than deprive her invalid father of even just a soup made of herbs. There is the exuberant Viola, who, for the love of an Alpino artillery man, carries forty-two kilos’ worth of projectiles on her back. There is Lucia, a mother of four with quiet strength, the point of reference for everybody else. They are friends, companions. They know these mountains better than anyone else and are the protagonists of this novel. A story of women, of hard work, of compassion, and of hope.

From their homes, twenty-six of the most prominent writers in the Italian landscape have given a meaning to these days by choosing to tackle this emergency also with the weapons of literature.

R. Armeni, S. Auci, A. Basso, B. Bellomo, G. Biondillo, C. Bonvicini, F. Bosco, M. Buticchi, C. Caboni, D. Carrisi, A. Dalton, G. Festa, A. Frontani, E. Galiano, A. Gazzola, E. Gnone, M. Gramellini, J. Lahiri, F. Noiville, C. Sánchez, G. Sundas, S. Truzzi, I. Tuti, H. Tuzzi, M. Vichi, A. Vitali.

Nowadays, fear has a new name: Covid-19. The only way to defeat it is to stay at home.  Within the four walls that have always shielded us but which have now become impassable boundaries.

They have become almost an enemy.

And yet, day after day, those who always work with words have discovered that rooms, windows, and even the remotest corners of their homes are wings to carry them out into the world. Every one of them has therefore chosen a way to give life to this magic.

From their homes, twenty-six of the most prominent writers in the Italian landscape have given a meaning to these days by choosing to tackle this emergency also with the weapons of literature.

So as to take their daily lives to the readers who love them.

And they decided to do this together with the publishing house Garzanti by donating all the proceeds to the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo.

Some decided to write about their days, their established routines, about novelties that make you smile. About the tears they cannot stop but also about the force of nature that dissolves the lump in your throat. About forced cohabitation, as well the distancing from people who are dear to you, that feels unbearable. Others write about neighbours who were once strangers but are no longer so, and work that has changed its tools but not its substance. Some admit their error in thinking that it could not all be true or else lend a voice to animals who, on the contrary, are glad this is all true. Others entrust their thoughts about these strange days to beloved characters they have created. Everyone is certain that we will emerge from this more aware of what is truly important, and we will meet, hug, and soon take walks all together. They are certain that solidarity will be the currency we will carry with us and no longer be able to do without.

They are all convinced that words, books and stories bring us together. They create invisible links that break all barriers. When we read we are never alone. And we are strong. And everything appears as it will be. Because all shall be well.

A protagonist with a proud, indomitable personality, sometimes brusque, always compassionate. A highly atmospheric setting.
A very talented, international-level author.
200,000 copies sold

Chief Inspector Teresa Battaglia is fighting her private war against Alzheimer’s, which should force her to resign, when she gets involved in a peculiar, eerie investigation. It all begins with a painting being recovered. The last painting of an elderly painter who has lived isolated since the end of the Second World War, shut away in self-imposed silence. The riddle of the Sleeping Nymph – the title of the portrait – is concealed in its very creation: lab tests show that the ink used to paint it is blood from a human heart. As Inspector Massimo Marini, unaware of Teresa’s illness, struggles to regain his strength and mental clarity after a very painful personal event, the case of the Sleeping Nymph suddenly explodes when a new victim appears. A man, whose only body part found is his heart, torn out of his chest and exhibited as a kind of warning at the gates of a village in the Alps. The secrets of this isolated and in many ways mysterious valley are about to be revealed, and someone in the shadows will do anything to keep them concealed…

The Times book of the Month, Prix Bête Noire 2019, Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar.
Bestseller – over 280,000 copies sold – Full English translation available

In a quiet village in the middle of a centuries-old forest surrounded by mountains, a series of violent acts take place. Police inspector and profiler Teresa Battaglia is called back from the city when the first body is found in the woods, a naked man whose face has been disfigured and eyes gouged out. Teresa immediately realises that the killer has some sort of psychosis, a theory that is later confirmed by a series of victims who have all been subjected to horrendous mutilation. The kidnapping of a newborn baby causes the situation to escalate. For inspector Battaglia, this is the beginning of a race against the clock, one that is worsened by a personal burden that makes everything more difficult. Teresa is fighting a battle against herself: against her body which is weighed down by her age and the diabetes that is continually creeping up on her. She is also battling against her mind, which used to be an invincible weapon and has now become her worst enemy, one that is making her lose her lucidity and confidence as it gnaws away at her memory.