Author:
Andrej Longo
Publisher:
Sellerio
Release Date:
21-11-2023
An anonymous phone call recommends keeping an eye on a certain Annamaria Di Spigno, a commoner living in Naples’ Quartieri Spagnoli. The strange thing is that it was in all probability a woman from the city’s affluent area who made the call, and this induces Commissioner Santagata to look into the matter. Meanwhile, the police officer Acanfora is grappling with his childhood friend Ciro, who has finally convinced himself to be housed in a rehabilitation community. On one condition, however: that Acanfora sends him a letter for every game played by Napoli. Acanfora, who understands little about football, agrees to help his friend, and thus begins to write him inimitable chronicles of the matches and the increasingly excited atmosphere in the city for the team’s exploits. Santagata, meanwhile, discovers that Di Spigno is a notorious drug dealer, but when he and his trusted Acanfora set out to interrogate her, he learns that the woman has died. A suspicious death, especially since traditional mourning customs were not respected. Moreover, the woman was cremated in haste, almost as if to conceal inappropriate truths. Santagata and Acanfora thus begin to investigate, threading their way through a labyrinth of hypotheses that seem indecipherable, but which seem to link the alleys of the Quartieri to the rich bourgeoisie.
To follow Santagata and Acanfora’s investigations is to immerse oneself in the essence of a unique city. Firstly because of the adherent and extraordinarily expressive language used by the author. Secondly because every nook and cranny the two protagonists visit suddenly becomes alive and palpitating, dramatic and amusing at the same time. All wrapped up in the acute gaze of Acanfora, who tells the story in the first person, continuously enriching it with details worthy of a poet.