Adrián N. Bravi, with his sarcastic and melancholic gaze, draws a vivid portrait of those who obsessively persist in finding order inside chaos.
The book contains three novellas, previously published as Restituiscimi il cappotto/Give me back my coat (Fernandel, 2004), La Pelusa/Dust (nottetempo, 2009) and Il riporto/The combover (nottetempo, 2011). A trilogy about escaping daily life, an existential comedy about those little shameful things we do every day. Nothing is left out: from the suspiciously skilled hands of the barber to the libraries full of obsessions, like dust, silent and invasive. The author’s style is unmistakably measured and light as much as deeply intense. Bravi doesn’t offer us any comfort, instead he takes a look into our goofiest, most solitary and grotesque scars. This is a fierce comedy about the ordinary, lighthearted but blunt.
A fierce, formidable writer… The Combover is a small masterpiece. Alberto Manguel
What gives this novel its power is the artful language that invites us to meditate on the simple life. Asymptote
The Combover contains more depth and darkness than one might expect from its title. It’s for those who find intrigue in the unusual. The Booklover
Bravi impressively immerses the reader in the obsessive’s world and madness with an effective allegorical coating to. The Complete Review
Adrián N. Bravi, born in Buenos Aires in 1963, he moved
to Italy in the late 1980s and began to publish fiction in
the late 1990s. He is the author of several novels, among
which Adelaida shortlisted for the Strega Award 2024. His
works have been translated into French, English, Arabic
and Spanish.
Pub date: September 2026
Length: pp. 256
Eng. rev. (Dust by Dalkey Archive 2017)
Eng. rev. (The Combover by Frisch&co. 2013)
Fr. rev. (Poussière by Payot Rivages 2009)