Books. At Porta a Mare meeting with Rachele Salvini with “No Big Deal”

Friday 28 June 2024 — 12.26pm

Sunday 30th June at 6pm at the Officine Storiche in the premises of Librerie.coop Porta a Mare (via Costante Neri, 67-69-71-73) there will be a meeting with Rachel Salvini for the presentation of the book “No Big Deal” (Nottetempo). Conversation with the author Veronica Tati.

Dixon and Lena. London and Livorno. Two lives seemingly distant, yet so similar. He is the favorite target of the malice of his classmates, who laugh at him; of the girls, who consider him mediocre; of his father, above all, an alcoholic and violent man who beats him methodically. In Italy Lena experiences a less extreme situation, but inside her the discomfort is the same. She feels like no one likes her: not the boys, to whom she seems to be invisible, and certainly not her mother, an oppressive woman stuck in a marriage now at the end of the line. Finally comes a landing place, someone to rely on – his friend Ale for Dixon, Tommaso’s love for Lena. But the real destination, for both, becomes music, a tool to react to the confusion of dysfunctional relationships and find a place in the world. Dixon joins No Big Deal as a guitarist, an independent band looking for glory, while Lena cultivates her dream of becoming a music journalist by moving to London. Their parallel paths intersect in a pub of the capital between the fumes of alcohol and the rock notes of the group, and will end up being inextricably linked. The ghosts of the past and the pitfalls of the present will soon show how unstable happiness is and how success, or rather the simple dream of success, is difficult to manage. In this bright and mature debut Rachele Salvini tells the story of the bumpy path of self-discovery, and how the shadows of the abuse suffered prevent us, at times, from expressing what we could and would like to be.

Rachele Salvini she was born in Livorno but has lived in the United States for years. Her stories have been published in American and Italian literary magazines. She achieved a in English from Oklahoma State University and currently teaches Writing at Gettysburg College. No Big Deal is her first novel.