QUEL MALEDETTO VRONSKIJ

A novel that sheds new light on what it means to care for each other. The story of a love that finds its true expression in silence and tenderness. A literary jewel of introspection.

"Please forgive me.I'm so tired. Don't come looking for me." This is all Giulia writes to her husband Giovanni, before disappearing into thin air. And now, he feels like a castaway in their empty house. Their love was made up of little things: breakfast in the morning, bread with butter and jam; a swift kiss before going to work and another one in the evening, when he came back from the typography with ink-stained fingers; the two of them hugging in the garden, among the roses she carefully prunes. After a lifetime together, they still hadn't lost the will to make each other happy. Or so he thought. Looking for answers, Giovanni looks through Giulia's books and picks out her favourite volume: Anna Karenina. He begins to read. Slowly, he is brought to believe that his wife has found another man, a fiery lover, a damned Vronsky. Bitter with jealousy, he locks himself in the typography, determined to create a unique copy of Tolstoy's masterpiece with the finest paper and a leather cover, in the hope of one day making it his last pledge of love for Giulia. But life is no novel: it proceeds in gentle, unpredictable bursts. When the mystery of his wife's disappearance unfolds, Giovanni begins to understand that there will always be something that escapes us, and that all we can do is just stop being afraid of it. Claudio Piersanti is an Italian novelist and screenwriter. He lives between Rome and Marche. In 1997, he won the Viareggio Rèpaci Prize with his book Luisa e il silenzio. Piersanti has received the lifetime achievement award Premio Flaiano 2021 and Quel maledetto Vronskij is among the three novels shortlisted for Premio Isola d'Elba.