Premio Flaiano per la narrativa 2020
«Narrative atmosphere that remind us of Calvino, Fenoglio and Pirandello.» La Stampa
«A book outside of the box.» Corriere della Sera
«Pedullà’s short stories are perfect contraptions.» Il Sole 24 Ore
“A clue is a clue, two clues are a coincidence, but three clues make a proof,” said the great Hercule Poirot. In Gabriele Pedullà’s stories, a coincidence is just a warning, two mean that something unexpected is about to happen, but three coincidences should not be wished even on your worst enemy. Or perhaps coincidences don’t even exist anymore, for the women and the men sitting at Pedulla’s game table. And in the curiosity that drives them to raise the stakes every time – questioning their truths and certainties – it is better to recognize the work of an evil genius in the mood for mockery. Giacomo would only like to sleep; the engineer Luigi Bassetti tries to make a career out of Chinese cuisine; Olindo is longing for fog; Eliana and G. remember the legendary youth of their friend Vale… To trigger these stories is always a journey – longed for, feared, remembered – that promptly turns upside down. Because, like a mist, a dark breath blows in these pages where nothing is foreseeable. And when in the end the danger is manifested openly the first to pay the consequences is precisely who believed to be sheltered from it. Starting with the reader.
“Who says the city sleeps at night? That’s a privilege for children.”
Gabriele Pedullà
Gabriele Pedullà was born and lives in Rome. He is a professor of Italian Literature and Contemporary Literature at the University of Roma Tre and a regular contributor to the literary supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore and the bimonthly magazine Il Caffè illustrato. He is the author of La strada più lunga (2001), Machiavelli in tumulto. Conquista, cittadinanza e conflitto nei Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (2011), a monograph on Machiavelli’s theory of conflict, and a new commentary on Machiavelli’s The Prince (2013), Lo spagnolo senza sforzo (2009, Premio Mondello Opera Prima, Premio Verga, Premio Frontino), Lame (2017), winner of the 2017 Nino Martoglio literary prize and the 2018 Carlo Levi literary prize, and Biscotti della fortuna (2020, Premio Flaiano per la narrativa 2020).
«Narrative atmosphere that remind us of Calvino, Fenoglio and Pirandello.» La Stampa
«A book outside of the box.» Corriere della Sera
«Pedullà’s short stories are perfect contraptions.» Il Sole 24 Ore