A good book, the coolness of centuries-old trees immersed in Etruscan history, art and song: in the frenetic pace imposed by duties and needs, could there be anything more desirable?
All this was there on the afternoon of Thursday 27th in the area in front of the Mengarelli Hall of the Etruscan Necropolis of Banditaccia in Cerveteri. An evocative setting, full of charm and mysteries of past lives, the one chosen for the first national presentation of Daniela Alibrandi’s latest novel, I delitti del Mugnone, Morellini Editore, released in bookshops a few days ago.
The initiative, promoted by the Cerveteri Tarquinia Archaeological Park, with the Patronage of the Lazio Region, was realized with the outlines of excellence within the IV edition of the project “On the Etruscan Road”, conceived by the actor Agostino De Angelis, narrator of some of the salient passages of the story; in dialogue with the author, Alessandra De Antoiis, the forensic criminologist Gianluca Di Pietrantonio, and the beautiful singing of Mariapia Gallinari, who performed some of the passages cited in the story.
The numerous people present were thus able to have a discreet taste of what has been officially recognized as a multidimensional crime, a literary genre of which the author can boast the motherhood, that is, a plot woven with the narrative peculiarities of noir, thriller and yellow.
The story is set in Tuscany, between Florence and Fiesole, on the banks of the Mugnone river, a suggestive tributary of the Arno and inside a monastery of nuns, guardians of silences full of secrets.
A wise, fluid and flowing, intriguing narrative, managed with the use of analepsis and plot, which keeps the reader nailed between the lines with bated breath until the last page; the descriptions of the settings are superlative, made visible and familiar by the author, as are the characters in the story, victims and executioners with the common denominator of human frailty. Commissioner Rosco returns, frangible and tenacious at the same time, whose inspiration is the true prodigy of the author, who has demonstrated to herself how her love is capable of mocking death.
Perhaps Daniela Alibrandi’s most refined work, matured between affliction and emotional rebirth, with which the author delves into the soul of those who suffer, those who seek, those who love, those who are in the throes of madness , decrypted by the criminological analysis of the expert present.
A beautiful afternoon of culture and familiarity, in which the elegant personality of the author spread in the scented summer air, igniting the curiosity and smiles of those present, who were able to caress the shape of creative delicacy.
Ludovica DiPietrantonio
Editor The Agon
