Titles in our catalogue

Salento, June 1934. A coach stops in the main square of Lizzanello, a village with only a few souls. A couple get off: the man, Carlo, a child of the South, is happy to be back home; the woman, Anna – his wife – is from the North. She is as beautiful as a Greek statue, but sad and worried: what kind of life awaits her in this unfamiliar land?

In the eyes of the villagers, Anna never ceases to be “the foreigner” who doesn’t attend church, doesn’t wander around the village and doesn’t gossip. Proud and prickly, Anna never yields to the customs of Southern women: not only does she take the postal services public exam, but actually passes it and becomes the first postwoman in the village, or rather the first “letter carrier”, as she wants to be called.

For over twenty years, Anna is the invisible thread that brings the village residents and their stories together. First on foot, then by bicycle, proud in her navy blue cap and uniform, Anna delivers letters from the young men at the front, postcards from emigrants and missives from secret lovers. Without meaning to – and above all without the villagers wanting it – the letter carrier changes many things in Lizzanello.

Naples. Whenever Stephanie, aged ten, comes back home she complains to her mother about her cousins playing outdoors while she cannot. The reason for that is simple: they can because they’re boys, whereas she is a girl. So she starts reading on the balcony, the only outside area where her parents allow her to go. Stephanie studies because she knows that words are her only defence against the world. Her grandmother Nannina, a storyteller, has told her that. Some say she is just a mad old woman, while others think she is something quite different. With her stories, Nannina has given a place to those who did not have one, an identity and dignity to mothers drained by poverty and the arrogance of men, and made people laugh and cry. That is until the day someone grows weary of Nannina and silences her. It is now up to her granddaughter Stephanie to take up her voice and, in her stories, find her own redemption–that of a girl with a dream: to study and discover freedom.

River Adda, 1877. Cristoforo Crespi sees a small triangle of land bounded by the river as the future and the chance his family needs to make an indelible mark upon this world. Thus, the son of a simple tengitt, a dyer, builds an avant-garde cotton mill and a village to house its workers. Italy has never seen such a thing: the village has its own church, school, and comfy homes with gardens. Cristoforo bets everything he has on this dream. His money, his reputation, and even his relationship with his brother Benigno, who has succumbed to the temptations of the high life in Milan and by the prestige of owning a newspaper. For Cristoforo, what matters most is to create something concrete and to change the life of his workers for the better.

Young Emilia’s life changes the day she moves into the new village. The daughter of one of Crespi’s most loyal workers and a woman tormented by dark premonitions, Emilia witnesses, from this side of the river, the creation of a self-sustaining world. She experiences the small and large events of Italian history: the 1989 bread riots, the First World War, the labor insurrections. But as fate would have it, her path soon crosses that of Silvio Crespi, heir to the company and to his father’s vision. Despite the socio-economic chasm that separates them, they develop a special relationship that stands the test of life and time.

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.

Full English translation available

From the 1800s to the 1930s, the Florios are the «uncrowned kings of Sicily»: restless and ambitious, single-minded and determined to be richer and more powerful than anybody else. They start as grindingly poor spice sellers, but they quickly move on to tuna fishing, to foundries and finally to the Marsala wine that conquers the world. Shrewd businessmen and entrepreneurs, the Florio men are also stubborn, arrogant, philanderers and slaves to passions and they often find themselves forced to choose between ambition and sacrifice. Strong and resolute, the Florio women may be caring mothers, alluring mistresses or wounded wives, but they always strive to find their place in the world. From Vincenzo, the founder of the Florio empire, to Ignazio, his grandson, who squanders the family fortune on legendary parties; from Giovanna, iron-willed but love-starved, to the legendary Donna Franca, idolized by kings and poets, the author draws on history with both hands, dispels the mists of time and restores the Florios’ extraordinary, contradictory and fascinating vitality.

Ancient Egypt, Dynasty XVII – Akhenaten, the pharaoh considered heretical for introducing the monotheistic cult of god Aten, is forced to flee. His young son Tut is proclaimed king: this unprepared but honest and brave child has no idea that he will become the most famous pharaoh of all times, and that his story will be shrouded in legend and mystery… As a matter of fact, Tutankhamun is no more that a puppet in the hands of Vizier Ay, his tutor, who is too cunning not to realise that sooner or later, the pharaoh will no longer need him. Ay’s ruthless yearning for power leads to a decision: Tutankhamun must be eliminated.

England, early 1900s – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvo, is a globetrottong dandy with a passion for the occult, who travels to Egypt where he meets the archeologist Howard Carter, and together they undertake an archeological dig to snatch from the sands of time the mysteries of the pharaohs. When the team makes a sensational discovery, possibly the most important archeological find ever, a casket of papyrus vanishes into thin air before it can be added to the inventory. Carter believes that, besides gold and wealth, the discovered tomb also contained a different truth about the origin of the main religions. A truth so ancient that it could challenge the entire world order…

Elia Legasov was born in a town surrounded by whiteness and has never left.

His job is to shovel snow and clear streets along which nobody walks until the snow reveals something from its depths. Something connected to Elia’s family and all that was supposed to remain buried. From that moment on, Elia’s mind becomes crowded with memories he had suppressed: memories of a father who died many years ago and a mother who left for ever.

This makes Elia believe what people say about his family: that the snow does not protect them but, on the contrary, puts them to the test to see if they are capable of forgetting, because everybody forgets. But the Legasovs remember, always.

It is now Elia’s turn to remember, whatever the cost. Because grief creates the winter, only every winter is different from the one before and the one before that.

It is 20 July 2001 and Rome stretches under the sweltering cloak of a motionless summer. Enzo, Giacomo and Filippo are childhood friends united by an unsteady attempt at middle-class stability and their friend Biba. They are driving to the sea to spend an evening like so many others when the radio broadcasts the events of the G8 Summit in Genoa. That is precisely where Biba is: she has gone there to see what would happen and finds herself witnessing the bloody battle that involves many of her peers, mainly peaceful anti-globalisation protesters. Overwhelmed by the violence, Biba feels only fear and alienation and decides not to stay a moment longer and to return to her three friends. The following morning, they all get together possibly for the last time: Biba tells them what she saw… Nothing will ever be the same again, but nothing will truly change.

Francesco and Viola realise they love each other, and never mind the uncertainty of their lives as young adults without a clear future, on the edges of a city. Confident that they share a powerful, intense love, they move in together, then get married… But their idyll does not last long because Francesco notices that Viola is tormented by something that is eating away at her from the inside. An unspeakable secret, maybe another man? There is, indeed, another man: it’s Viola herself. Viola, who has never felt comfortable in that body, with that identity. Thanks to Francesco, she decides to listen to her own voice and start the process of gender transition. The love she has for Francesco is unquestionable and he, guided by an unshakeable feeling, decides to support his wife. But is this really a journey that can be undertaken by two people? Can love, true love, really withstand anything?

A fresh and at the same time mature debut novel that tackles skillfully very topical issues, such as identity and gender transition, with delicacy and authenticity.

Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, born from a swan’s egg, is the most beautiful woman in the world, the most desired in all Greece. All the heroes of the peninsula – from Ulysses to Ajax – appear before her father to ask for her hand in marriage. But she is also the epitomy of treachery: she left her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta, and ran away with Paris, a foreigner, to live in Troy. The Trojan war, much written about in literature, broke out because of her.

“There are many rumours about me. All kinds of contradictory things are said about me: some people think I am the worst among women, the cause of multiple damage, while others claim I am pure and innocent, splendid prey for men and a useful pawn in the hands of the gods. And then there are those who imply that it’s all wrong and that I am actually a goddess. What should you believe? What’s the truth? That’s why I’ve come from eternity to tell you about myself, firsthand.”

Paris, January 1991. Alba De Céspedes agrees to tell her story to Léna, who is studying the connection between autobiography and literary fiction. The meetings between the two women become occasions to revisit the episodes and circumstances that marked the writer’s life and work: her relationship with a mythical family past, the distance of her parents, a first marriage at a very young age, the birth of her son, being a partisan in the Resistance in the Abruzzo woods and subsequent imprisonment, the success of her novels and her role in literary society, the trips to Cuba and her friendship with Fidel Castro, her mother’s mental illness, and May 1968 in France. The questions Léna asks – as she is ready to immerse herself in Alba’s novels to reemerge with fragments of a past life in her hands – are chiefly a pretext for creating a game of mirrors between fiction and reality. A game that constitutes the book as she tries to piece together the impossible biography of one of the most important figures in 20th-century Italy – one of the most widely read and translated writers – and attempts to understand what it means to write a novel of one’s own life.

Sometimes all it takes to start a lifelong friendship is a shared biscuit in the school playground. This is what happened to Caterina and Ludovica, who have been like sisters ever since, although they could not be more different. Caterina is a fearless volcano of energy. Ludovica, on the other hand, leads a life in which there’s no place for risk. Year after year, while Caterina drags her to parties, Ludovica tries to introduce a little responsibility into her friend’s chaotic life. It is a balance that has remained unaltered since they were kids, through their adolescence into adulthood. When Caterina becomes pregnant they even raise the child together. For Ludovica this is the child she never had out of fear of being hurt, of really falling in love, of breaking the wall of certainties behind which she has always shielded herself. Yet there can be no wall high enough to protect us from life, which at times makes us stronger, and at others suddenly overwhelms us. After a lifetime spent surprising her friend, Caterina is now the one who needs Ludovica to do something unexpected and a little bit crazy.

One winter afternoon, eighty-three year-old Bina is left on her own. She is waiting for her grandson Fabio in the Cinghio park, in the outskirts of a respectable town. Marta, twenty-five, watches her through her window, sees her grow stiff on a broken bench, and decides to put her up that night and the one after that. And the one after that, too.

All the residents in the building gather around her: Gianna, the neighbour who talks to an imaginary sister, Ljuba, old Maria’s carer, and Benny, a security guard and Marta’s childhood friend.

A couple of streets further up, Fabio, Bina’s grandson, is in serious trouble. So he knocks on the door of Genny, the prostitute, a damaged, disillusioned creature of the Cinghio district, who picks up other people’s pieces without asking questions.

Bina and Fabio spend days living parallel lives, in limbo, in a harsh, unfamiliar place, waiting for something to happen.

And something will happen. It will shuffle the cards and deal new cards to the players in a haphazard,  American-style game of poker, with an exceptional croupier: fate.

Turin. At dawn, the daily routine of the residents of the elegant apartment block at 7, Via Armando Diaz, is disrupted by the deeply moving music of a saxophone. Or almost. The music doesn’t wake the attractive Gemma, who is used to sleepless nights and who has been worrying for hours, wondering where her husband Marcello is, as he hasn’t come home yet. Her neighbour Nevio also opens his eyes and looks sadly at the young man next to him. Egle, on the other hand, is already dressed for her morning run, the only way to banish the thought of her unrequited love. Only Tommaso, Gemma’s son, is still asleep after a night painting the town. And yet it is the notes of this saxophone that will change his life, because they are being played by a vagrant who lives in the street with his little dog. And behind the emaciated face and tangled hair there’s a man who found redemption through music, and who will teach an entire apartment block about the beauty of little things.

Within the walls of Grave, the orphanage in which Nica has grown up, stories and legends have always been told by candlelight. The most famous one is about the tear maker, a mysterious craftsman with eyes as clear as glass, guilty of having manufactured all the fears and anxieties that dwell in people’s hearts.

But, at the age of seventeen, the moment has come for Nica to leave all these dark childhood stories behind. Her greatest dream is about to come true. Mr and Mrs Milligan have begun the adoption procedures and are ready to give her the family she’s always wanted. However, Nica is not alone in the new house. Rigel, a restless, mysterious orphan, is also taken out of Grave, and he’s the last person Nica would wish for an adoptive brother. Rigel is intelligent, astute, plays the piano like a bewitching demon and is mesmerisingly handsome, but his angelic appearance conceals a dark temperament. Even though Nica and Rigel share a past filled with grief and deprivation, living together seems impossible; especially when the legend comes back to haunt their lives and the maker of tears suddenly grows increasingly real and draws nearer. Even so, gentle and brave, Nica is ready to do anything in order to protect her dream, because only by facing the nightmares that torment her will she finally be able to soar freely like the butterfly after which she was named.

Ivy grew up among frozen lakes and uncontaminated forests, surrounded by the snow she loves. This is why, after she is orphaned and forced to move to California, all she can think of is what she’s left behind. Canada and its land are a deep loss. Its mountains contain the past to which the girl is so attached, and that, unbeknown to her, makes her the carrier of a dangerous secret.

The only family she has left is that of John, her kind godfather. It’s not long before she realises that John’s son, Mason, is no longer the toothless little boy whose picture she saw as a child. He is now grown up, with the sharp eyes of a wild animal and a face like a lair of shadows. And the first time he smiles at her, menacing, curving his perfect lips, Ivy realises that living with him will be harder than she expected. Indeed, Mason doesn’t want her there and does nothing to conceal it.

As Ivy tries to keep her head above the violent waves of her new life by the ocean, Canada and its mysteries never cease to torment her while she does everything it takes to enable her heart, white as snow, to blossom once more, overcoming the winter cold.

Quirky and lavish, the Milagro Club is a place that can bewitch anyone who walks into it, including Mireya. Obstinate like someone with nothing to lose, the young woman gets herself hired as a bartender. The Milagro, however, is more than an exclusive nightclub. Behind its closed doors, beyond the sequins and stage lights, destinies and secrets are intertwined. The darkest ones are all gathered in the rugged, charming face of Andras, the head of security. Between Mireya and Andras, it’s hatred at first sight. Both carry on their skins the same marks, the brand of those who have had to learn to fight in order to survive. And yet they keep bumping into each other, as though attracted by a mysterious force they neither know nor are able to oppose, bound by a golden thread that is stronger than destiny.

Vanessa is a second-year college student who has an innate love of books and the rain, and has an enduring bond with her best friends. After her parents get divorced, she meets Travis, a young man she hopes will help her recover her long-lost peace of mind. For two years it seems that nothing can dent their tempestuous love affair – at least not until Vanessa comes across the conceited arrogance of Thomas: a self-confident, hostile young man who is both a victim and an aggressor with a tormented past and a dreadful secret that has doomed him to unhappiness. Thomas and Vanessa’s lives, so different and yet so alike, interlock, leading to a both passionate and painful relationship made up of yearning, rows, secrets and obstacles. And when everything seems to take a turn for the better, an unexpected presence upsets everything.

Loving each other has never been easy for Thomas and Vanessa. Their relationship is fuelled by passionate nights and fierce jealousy, romantic sparks and seemingly insuperable misunderstandings. After nearly losing each other, however, things appear to be going in the right direction. For the first time, Thomas confides in Vanessa the traumas in his past that have turned him into a broken soul incapable of bonding with anyone. Still, not even this rekindled closeness seems sufficient, since his gripping distress is too deep. While Thomas is trapped in a spiral of self-destruction, Vanessa and Logan start seeing each other again. The young man has never accepted the end of their relationship and is ready to provide the support she deserves. Can there be a happy ending for two hearts on a collision course?

In a city torn apart by hatred, the Reds and the Whites live apart. Their worlds are divided by tall gates, at least until the day when the mayor decides to relocate the Red School pupils to the White Academy, so that the factions can mix and the tension – which has been raging for too long – can cool down. That’s how Isabella, the daughter of one of the city’s most influential families, meets for the first time Kinan, who represents the Reds. Kinan has flame-red hair, magnetic green eyes, and seems like an exemplary student. However, there is something odd about him and all the Reds. They have forced smiles, unnatural politeness and their every gesture appears to conceal shadow. Stubborn and brave, Isabella will be the first to unearth the terrifying secret behind appearances. A secret so dangerous, it can devastate lives. In a rollercoaster of fierce hatred and unfathomable attraction, their fates are doomed to become intertwined, as they are bound together by a truth that has waited all too long to be told.