Il libro napoletano dei morti

Caught between two centuries, between the betrayed dream of a "new Italy" and a twentieth century that will descend into the madness of the Great War, Naples is experiencing a dazzling period: perhaps the most splendid and, at the same time, the darkest in its history. This extraordinary tale – told by Francesco Palmieri through the intense and unsettling voice of the poet Ferdinando Russo – intertwines love and contradictions, political and criminal adventures. In a Belle Époque populated by criminals and artists, showgirls, businessmen, and politicians, it all culminates in the dramatic epilogue of the Cuocolo trial, in which it seems that all of Naples – with its half-wrong history – is morally on trial. However, the poet Ferdinando Russo and the ever-vigilant writer Francesco Palmieri have the task of reconstructing a thread, searching for another half of the story, still intact, within a myriad of stories – "of adventures of faith and passion," as Benedetto Croce would say – that have always overwhelmed the heart, the sea, and the destiny of Parthenope.