N°1 bestseller

Premio Strega 2020 finalist

“A fast paced, precise, suspenseful story that makes the reader want to run to the end with voracity.” Diego De Silva, La Stampa

“Carofiglio seems in a state of bliss. And he’s got every reason to be.” Antonio D’Orrico, La Lettura

“This book wipes out the distinction between legal thriller and literary novel. It’s just a good story very well told.” Dario Olivero, La Repubblica

“Guerrieri is a wonderfully convincing character.” The Times

“Italy’s best exports now include number-one bestselling writer Gianrico Carofiglio.” Gay Talese

“Guido Guerrieri is wonderful company on late-night walks through the city of Bari, Italy, brooding on lost loves and misspent lives.” The New York Times 

“Carofiglio’s insights into human nature – good and bad – are breathtaking.” Jeffery Deaver

One spring afternoon lawyer Guido Guerrieri finds an unexpected fragment of the past in his office. Of course, Lorenza has changed a lot. When they first met, more than twenty years ago, she was a charismatic, ambitious and seductive girl who wanted to become a writer and seemed ready to take on the world. Things took different turn. The years have had an impact on her face, her body, her temper. As if that weren’t enough her son Jacopo, a small-time delinquent, was convicted of first-degree murder. During the trial, the alibi she offered for her son was discredited. So, in the new trial, she turns to Guerrieri as her last hope. Guido does not have a good memory of her, of the way she treated him, of how their relationship ended. Moreover he isn’t convinced of Jacopo’s innocence. However, perhaps to make a melancholy tribute to his lost youth, he decides to accept the case. And so he begins, almost unwillingly, an exciting journey into the depths of justice and its potentially lethal pitfalls. A surprising investigation back and forth across the dangerous border between truth and mere verisimilitude. His old friend Carmelo Tancredi, a retired police inspector, and charming investigator Annapaola Doria are once again by his side.

Between surprising nights at the Osteria del Caffellatte and heart-to-heart talks with Mr. Sacco – the punching bag he works out with every evening – Guerrieri realizes that this time, in court, it will take more than just a brilliant defense.

A masterful novel. Writing at once unrelenting and full of compassion, striking a balance between the trial story – the purest distillation of human experience – and the sad notes of time as it passes and exhausts itself.

“If he wasn’t guilty of that murder, and I can’t imagine how, then it would be such a combination of unfortunate circumstances as to give you the chills.”