Claudia Petrucci – författare

In the round house on Via Saterna in Milan, its Palladian square exterior nothing but a trompe-l'oeil, the sun pierces through the central skylight. Its rays pass three floors unobstructed, before reaching the circle below at the heart of the house: four fingers of water filling a little silver basin. It is here that young Lidia dies, setting an end to her clandestine love affair with the ambitious architect. It is this house that real-estate agent Irene is asked to sell, decades later, as the climate catastrophe escalates, cloaking the divided city in a permanent orange haze. As she faces this new Milan, Irene throws herself into the impossible sale, getting to know Via Saterna intimately-this space that is as unsettling as it is hostile, with the slowly emerging traces of Lidia's interrupted life. In every room of the house, the burden of a mysterious, unresolved past can be felt, remnants of a selfish and manipulative love. The Perfect Circle is a subtly disturbing page-turner, every new page adding a new layer and twist.

Giorgia was a talented actress before she abandoned her stage career and fell in love with Filippo. She settles into a life of quiet compromise - until one day she bumps into her old theater director, Mauro, who fans the acting flame back to life. But setting a restless soul on fire can be dangerous if the leading actress loses sight of the boundary between reality and fiction - and Giorgia collapses, ending up in a clinic. Filippo and Mauro find themselves both accomplices and adversaries, seduced by a dangerous game to heal and win back Giorgia: by writing the script for her perfect life.