Winner of the Premio Letterario Internazionale Nino Martoglio 2017
Winner of the Premio Letterario Nazionale Carlo Levi 2018
“A sharp and surprising book.” Corriere della Sera
“Musically conducted, twirling and flipping following its characters’ moves, Pedullà’s writing creates the illusion of flying without lifting your feet off the ground.” Il Messaggero
On one of the most beautiful hills of Rome, overlooking the maze of domes and terraces of the eternal city, a group of skaters meet every Sunday to perform an odd ritual made of freedom, Eighties songs, and vintage clothes. Ruggiero and Olimpia – a happily married couple in their late thirties – find themselves hypnotized by the circular movements of the skaters, which suddenly bring them back to their teenage years. Week after week they are dragged into a never-ending dance in which real life is only a distant echo – whirling between the illusion of eternal youth and the incessant passage of time. While the mild spring afternoons leave room to a sweltering summer, things are bound to change forever.
With a fluid, witty prose, Pedullà relentlessly chronicles the erosion of a complex system of small events and minute details: ordinary life.
“…that aimless movement concerned everyone. It was not only about a group of middle-aged kids who spent their Sundays flipping through the air. […] There, suddenly, you could find the best and the worst of all of us. Our anxieties. Our mistakes. Our hopes, maybe. I needed to understand. And so, I started writing…”
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).
“A sharp and surprising book”
Corriere della Sera
“Musically conducted, twirling and flipping following its characters’ moves, Pedullà’s writing creates the illusion of flying without lifting your feet off the ground”
Il Messaggero
“A homage to a Rome on the run”
La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno
“A very contemporary book… a gift both to the common reader and the more sophisticated one… A tried-and-true engine to dissect reality”
Il Quotidiano del Sud
“A love story, you would say, for those skates, for the relief from the mediocrity of life, for the illusion of ‘lifting off the ground’”
La Gazzetta di Parma
“It hypnotizes you right away”
La Gazzetta del Sud
Foreign rights sold in:
English World Rights: Seagull Press