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The spellbinding true story of one of the most vicious crimes in recent Italian historyIn March 2016, in an apartment on the outskirts of Rome, two "ordinary" young men brutally tortured and murdered twenty-two-year-old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves across Rome and beyond. After the crime comes to light, Lagioia begins investigating the crime by meeting with the victim's family and corresponding with one of the killers. It soon becomes clear, however, that to investigate this crime means to descend into the darkest corners of Rome and of the human psyche. Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, economic grievances and identity crises to locate the breaking point, the point after which anything is possible. Sharp, hypnotic, and devastating,
The City of The Living is not just the story of a crime, but of human nature itself: the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free, and between who we are and who we can become.
About the author
Nicola Lagioia is one of Italy's most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists, and has been the recipient of the Volponi, Straniero, and Viareggio awards, in addition to the Strega. In 2010 he was named one of Italy's best writers under forty. He has been a jury member of the Venice Film Festival and is the program director of the Turin Book Fair. Lagioia is a contributor to Italy's most prominent culture pages. He was born in Bari, and lives in Rome.
