QUEST'ORA SOMMERSA

An extraordinary literary novel about Leni Riefenstahl: Hitler's favorite filmmaker and director, dancer, star, photographer and propagandist.

The book opens when Leni is diving 15 metres under water around the Maldives. As she watches life move around her she appears vulnerable and alienated. With her is Martha, a 40 years old marine biologist. Martha observes Leni during their stay on the Maldives and is her guide and instructor as Leni takes photographs. But Martha is there for a different reason than it appears. As she guides an elderly Nazi through the underwater world of corals, mantas and other creatures she also hides a secret and a pain from that summer of 1941 when Leni was on the set of "Tiefland" and Martha used as a "unique exemplary". Through Martha's eyes we draw closer to a self-centered, indomitable woman and lier. The showdown is a climactic reckoning where everyone is forced to face their guilt and humanity. This fictional novel is based on real events, as shown by documentary interludes and the sea is an allegory for a world that transcends limits and where general rules don't apply. An hour can be a hundred years long and change can be possible. Emiliano Poddi was born in 1975. He is a novelist, playwright and radio broadcaster. His autobiographicl novel came out in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Strega Prize. Feltrinelli published his coming-of-age novel IMPERFETTE about the 1972 Summer Olympics basketball final between the US and the USSR. He has worked as a teacher in the Holden School.