Marco Missiroli – författare

'I entered instantly into the piercing clarity of these pages, utterly absorbed'JHUMPA LAHIRI'Hypnotic . . . filled with unforgettable characters'SANDRO VERONESI'An intense, moving book'DOMENICO STARNONEIt is a June morning in Milan when Sandro abandons his flat, his job and the increasingly unfulfilled promises of a stiflingly hostile city to return to his hometown of Rimini, on the Adriatic coast. His mother, Caterina, has been dead for a few years, but his father - headstrong, taciturn Nando - soldiers on in the same house of Sandro's youth.The two men could not be more different - Nando a former railway worker, Sandro a young professional in advertising - but they have one thing in common: their passion for winning. Nando and Caterina used to dance in amateur ballroom competitions up and down the Riviera - and they danced to win. Sandro inherited his obsession with success from them, but the stakes are a lot higher at the card table than on the dancefloor.As the days and weeks go by and their forced cohabitation gently returns them to the old rhythms of a past life - sweet in its nostalgia but punctured by memories heavy with sorrow - it becomes clear that both Nando and Sandro are hiding difficult truths. Where does Nando disappear to every night, driving around Rimini in his battered car, his old dancing shoes hidden in the trunk? And what did Sandro leave in Milan - besides an empty flat and a broken heart?'An intense novel that floors the reader . . . Magical'CORRIERE DELLA SERA'A gem. Heartbreaking and light-hearted'LA STAMPA'Unexpected and impossible to forget'IL FOGLIO'A ticking time bomb of a book'IL MESSAGGERO

Pietro arrives in Milan with an old bicycle and a battered suitcase full of tokens of the past. He takes up a post as concierge in a small apartment building, where it soon becomes apparent he has a deep-seated reason to be there. Living in the palazzo is Luca, a doctor, whose wife Viola carries a secret that could destroy their marriage; the bereaved lawyer Poppi, kind and desperately lonely; and elderly Luciana and her damaged son, both looking for impossible love. Right from the start Pietro has a special interest in Luca and his family, and soon he's using the concierge spare keys to let himself into his apartment while the family is out. Pietro's story is told in snatches and flashbacks, each prompted by one of the objects and notes he keeps in his suitcase, and gradually we find out what has brought him to be guardian of these lost souls, so late in his life . . .For readers of THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG and THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING, this is an atmospheric and unforgettable novel about the ties that bind.

NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES, COMING VALENTINE'S DAY 2022 'An absolute scorcher' Evening Standard'The book about infidelity that has shaken up Italy'The Times'Intimate and ultimately moving... completely absorbing'Daily Mail'A gripping novel exploring the tensions in an apparently idyllic marriage' Financial Times 'A must-read'Sydney Morning Herald'Devotion thrilled me, made me think and moved me deeply... Irresistible'Jonathan Safran FoerCarlo, a part-time professor of creative writing, and Margherita, an architect-turned-real estate-agent: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties, perfectly attuned to each other's restlessness. They are in love, but they also harbour desires that stray beyond the confines of their bedroom: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia; Margherita fantasises about the strong hands of her physiotherapist, Andrea.But it is love, with its unassuming power, which ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita's mother Anna, the couple's anchor and lighthouse - a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments.But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, will love be enough to save them? A no. 1 international bestsellerWinner of the Premio Strega GiovaniShortlisted for the Premio Strega'Powerful, delicate, exquisite' Claudio Magris 'Masterful... The ending is just as good as that of Joyce's The Dead' Corriere della Sera'You'll feel like taking refuge in this book and never leaving its confines' La Stampa'With all-encompassing writing, Marco Missiroli opens the rooms of his characters and the streets of Milan, the thoughts and the concealed desires, makes dialogue and silences reverberate with the spontaneity of great narrators' Il Foglio

En intim och intensiv roman om en ung pojke som växer upp, försöker lära sig att förstå livet, kärlek och åtrå. Libero Marsell är tolv år och familjen har nyligen flyttat från Milano till Paris. Hans mamma har inlett ett hemligt kärleksförhållande med pappans bästa vän. Liberos familj bryts sönder precis när han går in i puberteten och försöker omfamna den mystiska vuxna världen, relationer, sex och hur det är förbundet med kärlek. Den intellektuella och känsliga bibliotekarien Marie blir viktig för honom. En modersfigur och samtidigt föremål för hans sexuella lustar som leder Libero in i litteraturens värld där han upptäcker författare som Camus och Sartre. Men Lunette, hans bästa väns äldre syster, blir hans första riktiga kärlek. Libero växer upp tillsammans med läsaren genom romanen, guidad av sina litterära mästare i konsten att leva.

Margherita och Carlo älskar varandra. De lever lyckligt i ett problemfritt äktenskap. Ända till det ögonblick då Carlo gör något dumt med masterstudenten Sofia inne på universitetets toalett. Eller hände det ingenting? Det påstår Carlo. Margherita är förvirrad och samtidigt frestad av sin sjukgymnast Andrea. Som väl är för ung för mig - eller? tänker hon. Den äktenskapliga troheten är vacker men skör. I ett modernt liv i en dynamisk storstad som Milano är den utsatt för ständiga och lockande utmaningar. Trohet är en prisbelönt kärleks- och relationsroman av en av Italiens just nu mest uppmärksammade författare, Marco Missiroli. Hans psykologiskt spännande och aktuella intriger har banat väg för stora upplagor världen runt.