The story is about a mercenary soldier during the seventeenth-century Thirty Years’ War, his encounters with fictional and real characters such as Descartes, the engravers Merian and Jacques Callot, the vicissitudes of the conflict between battles, massacres, and plague epidemics. In the near future of a disastrous 2032, on the other hand, an anonymous former art dealer spends his days locked away in a palace on Togliatti road, after Rome has been almost razed to the ground by bombs and war has once again become long and harrowing. With a series of cross-references, swashbuckling adventures, and dramatic visions, Giacopini captures the fears and absurdities of the world we live in, where history seems to repeat itself and human errors never teach us how to protect precious times of peace.
A necessary and fiercely compelling novel that forces us to gaze into the darkness of our tomorrow through the wounds of our yesterday. Il Fatto
A story brimming with extraordinary energy that restores a voice and dignity to every anonymous person swept up in the fury of war and history. Il Venerdì
Giacopini is a great visionary writer with a keen sense of history, whose way of dealing with darkness is close to Pynchon’s. Il manifesto
A novel of adventures, visions and allusions that sheds light on the fears of the present and humanity’s inability to defend peace. Il Libraio
Vittorio Giacopini was born in Rome in 1961. Among
his works of nonfiction: Writers Against Politics, (Bollati Boringhieri
1999) and with Goffredo Fofi Before and After ’68,
Anthology of the Piacenza Notebooks (Minimum Fax, 2008).
Among his novels: The Fugitive King (Mondadori 2008,
Premio Comisso) The Map (Il Saggiatore 2015, Premio
Selezione Campiello) Rome (Il Saggiatore 2017) and The
Event Horizon (Mondadori 2024).
Pub date: February 2026
Length: pp. 352