General Fiction

Nessuno scrive al Federale

(No One Writes to the Regional Party Secretary)

Garzanti, November 2020, pp.320

Nessuno scrive al Federale brings Marshal Ernesto Maccadò back on the scene. He is now feeling increasingly more at home in the town where he was sent with his Maristella – and where they had first felt like a couple of aliens –  especially since the birth of his first child. Seen from up close, however, Bellano is far from being a quiet place, and it’s hard to dismiss the suspicion that a certain degree of madness reigns there.

The shores of Lake Como are dotted with towns and villages at the foot of mountains where not much happens. Except for Bellano. Over the past year and a half or so, the Secretary of the Regional Fascist Party has already had to replace two local branch secretaries. The first one to be fired was Bortolo Piazzacampo, nicknamed Tartina, because of an event connected with the eccentricities of a bull called Benito, where Tartina stood out for his stupidity. The second was Aurelio Trovatore, who decided to get married in Castellanza, choosing love over the fatal destiny of the Fascist motherland. A certain Caio Scafandro has now been appointed, a hunk of a man who resorts to his shovel-sized hands to drive his point across. Will he have the strength of mind – since there’s no lack of physical strength – to uphold his office? After all, there’s more than one skeleton in Scafandro’s cupboard. And more than one person knows that. All it would take is a couple of words whispered in the Regional Secretary’s ear and Bellano’s third local Fascist secretary would end up like his predecessors. This is why Scafandro has taken countermeasures, heedless of the fact that these cross into the land of law breaking,  presided over by the police – the land occupied by Marshal Ernesto Maccadò. Having recently become the father of Rocco, his first child, on the morning of 20 November 1929, the marshal narrowly avoids an accident when a metal object is hurled at him in the street by a possible murderer. Who can this idiot possibly be?

Garzanti, November 2020, pp.320

  • “Authentic characters and straightforward plots. Vitali leads the reader through pages where life takes centre stage”.

    Francesco Tagliabue, Il Piccolo

  • “Welcome to Bellano: Vitali’s immense little world. A Bellano that is so normal and so close to us”.

    Raffaella Silipo, TTL - La Stampa

  • “Lucky there’s Marshal Ernesto Maccadò!”

    Internazionale

  • Vitali recreates an attempt on the part of Fascism to steal the Befana”.

    Annarita Briganti, la Repubblica

Andrea Vitali

Andrea Vitali was born in 1956 on the eastern shore of Lake Como, where he still lives and works as a medical doctor. He started writing novels in 1989 with Il procuratore (The Prosecutor) and since then has kept up his prolific career by accumulating a series of literary prizes as being a finalist in the Strega prize. A success that’s lasted 20 years, made up exclusively of bestsellers, first places in the charts, prizes, and ecstatic reviews from the press and critics. More than 3,500,000 readers in Italy alone.

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