Author:

Erri De Luca

Publishing house:
Feltrinelli
Date of publication:
16-05-2023

She is a young gypsy woman on the run from her family to escape an arranged marriage to an older man; he is a watchmaker who is camping on the border and welcomes her into his tent. The meeting inaugurates an understanding made up of nocturnal dialogues about men and life, an exchange of knowledge and visions-she who believes in destiny, in signs, in the god of things, she who trained a bear and loved him as the best of friends; he who feels like a cog inside the machine of the world and that world he interprets according to the rules of Shanghai, as if playing is a way to bring order to chaos. An understanding that will last for a long time, even from afar, and will eventually alter the existence of both of them: a gap in the game, a stick that moves.

Erri De Luca sets out on little-trodden paths, on lives that knot and untie. He does so with a dense and light story, where every word hides deeper meanings, every sentence is a gateway first and foremost to oneself, and in doing so invites us to a calm, patient and lucid game in which even an imperceptible move can change the course of the game.