Italy (Einaudi Stile Libero) – La regola dell'equilibrio
Gianrico Carofiglio
La regola dell'equilibrio (A Fine Line)
A novel, Einaudi Stile Libero, November 2014, 288 pages

Number One Bestseller

“A Fine Line is a terrific novel, a legal thriller that is also full of complex mediations on the life of the lawyer and the difficult compromises inherent in any system of criminal justice. A book that is intensely rewarding at many levels.”
Scott Turow

“From legal thriller into the realm of Paul Auster”.
Publishers Weekly

Gianrico Carofiglio’s fifth novel featuring lawyer Guido Guerrieri.

Guido Guerrieri is the most famous lawyer in Italian fiction – a reluctant and ironic moral hero. A success in his profession, with a brilliant career, Guerrieri also has a fragile, melancholy side, which acts as countermelody to his great irony. He lives in a Bari that has never been so enthusiastically portrayed. The city’s striking views – the old center’s little alleys, the wind that blows in from the sea – and its typical characters accurately illustrates the contradiction of southern Italy and the entire country. Guerrieri trains as a boxer in his free time, and guided by a strong sense of justice, he often embarks on apparently impossible causes.

When Judge Larocca becomes the subject of corruption allegations, counsel for the defence Guido Guerrieri goes against his better instincts and takes the case. Helped by Annapaola Doria, a motorbike-riding bisexual private detective who keeps a baseball bat to hand for sticky situations, he investigates the judge’s alleged links to the mafia. Annapaola makes sure that the truth is discovered, perhaps not always in the most orthodox way.

This is a suspenseful legal thriller but also a commentary on judicial ethics in Italy and, in the character of Judge Larocca, a penetrating meditation on human nature. 

 

 

 

Gianrico Carofiglio

Gianrico Carofiglio was born in Bari and has worked for many years as a prosecutor specializing in organized crime. He was appointed advisor of the anti-Mafia committee in the Italian Parliament in 2007 and served as a senator from 2008 to 2013. He is the author of the novels featuring the character of the defense lawyer Guido Guerrieri: Testimone inconsapevole (Involuntary Witness, 2002), Ad occhi chiusi (A Walk in the Dark, 2003, Best International Noir of the year 2007 in Germany), Ragionevoli dubbi (Reasonable Doubts, 2006), Le perfezioni provvisorie (Temporary Perfections, 2010, Premio Selezione Campiello), La regola dell’equilibrio (A Fine Line, 2014), La misura del tempo (The Measure of Time, 2019, Premio Strega 2020 finalist). Officer of the Carabinieri Pietro Fenoglio is the protagonist of another series of novels: Una mutevole verità (A Shifting Truth, 2014, Premio Scerbanenco), L’estate fredda (The Cold Summer, 2016), La versione di Fenoglio (Fenoglio’s Version, 2019).
Among his fiction works: Il passato è una terra straniera (The Past is a Foreign Land, 2004, Premio Bancarella 2005), adapted into an internationally awarded film, Né qui né altrove (Neither Here Nor Elsewhere. A Night in Bari, 2009), Non esiste saggezza (There is No Wisdom, 2010, 2020), Il silenzio dell’onda (The Silence of the Wave, 2011, finalist for Premio Strega 2012), Il bordo vertiginoso delle cose (The Vertiginous Edge of Things, 2013), La casa nel bosco (The House in the Woods, 2014), written with his brother Francesco, Passeggeri notturni (Night Passengers, 2016), Le tre del mattino (Three O’Clock in the Morning, 2017), La disciplina di Penelope (Penelope’s Discipline, 2021) and Rancore (Resentment, 2022). Among his non-fiction books: La manomissione delle parole (Manumitting Words, 2010), Con parole precise (With exact words, 2015), Con i piedi nel fango (Feet in the Mud, 2018), Della gentilezza e del coraggio (On Kindness and Courage, 2020), La nuova manomissione delle parole (2021) and L’ora del caffè (Coffe Time, 2022). Many titles are also audiobooks, read by the author. In 2020 was released L’avvocato Guerrieri, Gianrico Carofiglio’s first audio-series. He has a podcast with his daughter Giorgia, called Coffee for Two. Gianrico Carofiglio’s multi-award winner and best selling books are translated into 27 languages worldwide.

Download here Gianrico Carofiglio rights catalogue.

 

Guido Guerrieri novels

Pietro Fenoglio novels

Penelope Spada novels

Novels

Short stories collections

Essays

“A Fine Line is a terrific novel, a legal thriller that is also full of complex mediations on the life of the lawyer and the difficult compromises inherent in any system of criminal justice. A book that is intensely rewarding at many levels.”
Scott Turow

“From legal thriller into the realm of Paul Auster”.
Publishers Weekly

“Guerrieri is a wonderfully convincing character.”
The Times

“Italy’s Scott Turow.”
“Carofiglio seasons his plot with enough philosophical spice to satisfy readers who want more from crime than the usual procedural rollercoaster.”
The Economist 1843

“The secret lies not in the discovery of the guilty party, but in capturing a climate, of a time to live more than a time to die.”
Corriere della Sera

“This novel tells a lot about Italy, its concessions and moral ‘turmoils’.”
la Repubblica

“For the second time this year Gianrico Carofiglio leads the bestselling list. It has already happened in July with A Changing Truth and now it happens with the melancholic lawyer Guerrieri, who is back in a sentimental and ethic thriller that intertwines a romance and a case of judge’s corruption, investigating the balance between the rule of the law and the justice needs.”
Ttl

“Guerrieri is a champion among the characters of the Italian contemporary novel, because he is the type man at forty.”
la Repubblica

Foreign rights sold in
Albania: Fjala
Denmark: HR Ferdinand
Germany: Goldmann
Poland: WAB Foksal
UK and US: Bitter Lemon Press

Italian and international editions

Foreign publishers of Gianrico Carofiglio’s works
Albania: Fjala
Argentina: El Ateneo
Australia and New Zealand: Text Publishing
Austria: Folio Verlag
Bosnia: Buybook
Brazil: Editora Jaboticaba
Czech Republic: Host
Denmark: HR Ferdinand
Ethiopia: Soomaalyia
Finland: Kustannus Moreeni
France: Payot e Rivages, Seuil, Slatkine
Germany: Goldmann, Folio Verlag, Scoventa
Greece: Alexandria, Modern Times
Israel: Achuzat Bayit Books
Japan: Bungei ShunJu
Kenya: Soomaalyia
Lithuania: Homo liber
Mexico: Urano
The Netherlands: Prometheus
Poland: W.A.B. Foksal
Portugal: Porto Editora
Romania: Leda
Russia: Inostranka
Serbia: Clio Publishing
Somalia: Soomaalyia
Spain (Castilian): Urano, La Esfera de los Libros, Anagrama
Spain (Catalan): Edicions 62
Sweden: Schibsted, Forum
Switzerland (French): Slatkine
Tanzania: Soomaalyia
Turkey: Neden Kitap
Uganda: Soomaalyia
UK: Bitter Lemon Press, Old Street Publishing
US: Thomas Dunne, Rizzoli International
Vietnam: Nhã Nam

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