Author(s): Erri De Luca

Novel | Translated fiction | Italy

In this novella set in the Dolomites, a cat-and-mouse interview opens between a young magistrate and an older suspect. It becomes an examination of perception versus truth and of the group protection afforded in a moment of collective action versus the echoing responsibility of the individual over 'the leprosy of time'.

Review: 'As when walking on the edge of a precipice - even in conversations it only takes a missed word to fall into the ravine' * Corriere dell' Italianita *
'A book with rare intensity that is classic Erri De Luca, political engagement, loyalty, fidelity, short chiselled sentences, a passion for nature and above all the mountains, rigour and brotherhood' -- Alexandra Schwartzbrod, Liberation
'A scathing novel, dry, with themes that haunt his work. De Luca's dialogue has a theatrical quality: we think of Camus' Just Assassins: how far should loyalty to the cause go? Is it worth a man's death? Is violence always wrong?' -- Etienne de Montety, Figaro

Author Biography: Erri De Luca is an award-winning writer, poet and activist whose literary awards include the Prix Andre Malraux, the European Book Prize and the European Prize for Literature. The author of more than seventy books translated into more than thirty languages, he has been called 'the writer of the decade' byCorriere della Sera. A dedicated mountain climber, he lives a reclusive life in the hills surrounding Rome.N.S. Thompson is a poet and critic and translator of Italian fiction and poetry. He has worked as a gardener and museum curator in Italy and as an academic and creative writing tutor in Oxford.