Books by Giancarlo De Cataldo
The Father and the Foreigner
by Giancarlo De Cataldo, Ann Goldstein
Diego is an employee at the Ministry of Justice in Rome and the father of a gravely disabled boy. Though the birth of his son sent shockwaves through his life and his marriage, Diego is managing, now, to give himself and his family some semblance of routine and normality. His universe and its relative calm are thrown into turmoil by his meeting with Walid, an elegant and mysterious Middle Eastern man who is also the father of a disabled child. The two men, united by their shared pain, become friends and even as Walid's behavior grows increasingly mysterious, Diego is seduced by the man's charm and magnetism. He follows Walid on nocturnal odysseys into the underbelly of the Eternal City, on visits to dark places peopled with obscurely threatening figures. All evidence now points to the enigmatic figure's connection to sinister dealings and Diego senses that his association with Walid is involving him in matters that will threaten everything he holds dear.
What does Diego really know about Walid other than his being the father of a disabled son, like himself? What exactly is he: terrorist? spy? international criminal? Or is Diego guilty of projecting his own barely acknowledged fears and doubts onto an innocent man? To answer these questions, Diego will have to follow his relationship with this man through to its frightful end, in the process asking himself some hard questions about his own nature.
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The Night of Rome
by Carlo Bonini, Giancarlo De Cataldo
“Razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi’s Rome.”―The New Statesman
Things are changing in Rome. The new Pope, determined to bring radical reform to the Vatican, proclaims an extraordinary Jubilee year, one “of Mercy.” A new center-left government replaces its disgraced predecessor. And with crime lynchpin Samurai in jail, his protégé Sebastiano Laurenti attempts to establish himself as the designated successor. But he must reckon not only with a new generation of enterprising gangsters and racketeers―out to carve for themselves a slice of the profits and opportunities offered by the major public works planned for the Jubilee―but also with ambitious newly elected politician, Chiara Visone.
Betrayals, ambushes and infighting will inevitably alter the fragile political balance in the Eternal City. As the sharks circle, some tenuous hope endures in the unlikely alliance of an incorruptible politician of the old left and a young bishop who refuses to play the Vatican’s power games. But it remains to be seen whether, in the long night of Rome, there is room for redemption.
Sharp, dark and taut, The Night of Rome is fiction that sails dangerously close to the wind of current events.
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Suburra
by Carlo Bonini, Giancarlo De Cataldo
The “razor-sharp political thriller set during the dying days of Berlusconi’s regime” that inspired the Netflix original series (New Statesman).
This “fast-moving crime thriller” takes a deep dive into a politically and financially corrupt contemporary Italy, where crime families, corrupt politicians, and new rabid criminal elements battle each other for control of a glittering prize―a multibillion-dollar development twenty miles from the Italian capital (Publishers Weekly).
During the final days of Silvio Berlusconi’s reign, a massive development proposal that will turn the depressed coastal settlement of Ostia into a gambling paradise, a Las Vegas on the Mediterranean, is winding its way through the Italian legislature thanks to the sponsorship of politicians in the pay of crime syndicates. It’s business as usual in the Italian capital. Or so it seems. A vicious gang of local thugs loyal to nobody but themselves is insisting on a bigger cut than agreed upon. The Mafia and their political puppets aren’t going to back down without a fight. And one policeman, pushed to the sidelines, may not be able to stop an all-out war . . .With a plot that “thrills from the get-go,” Suburra is a compelling work of international crime fiction and the inspiration for the popular Netflix series of the same name (New Statesman).
“A novel of Rome, meaning that the city itself, in all its history, glory, and despair, is skillfully sewn into the fiber of the tale. . . . Evokes Mario Puzo’s famous trilogy and other classics of the genre.”―Kirkus Reviews
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Judges
by Carlo Lucarelli, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Andrea Camillieri
Incorporating distinct traditions and styles of crime writing, the three novellas in Judges are united by a theme of idealistic judges in an often futile struggle against crime and corruption.
Andrea Camilleri's novella recounts the charming Judge Surra. Leaving his family behind, Surra arrives in the 19th-century Sicilian town of Montelusa from Turin and is given quirky gifts from the locals, but is oblivious to the veiled threats accompanying them. Finally forced to contend with a hostile community and an imminent attempt on his life, Surra proves he is relentless in his quest for justice.
Carlo Lucarelli's novella presents a darkly hued Bologna in the 1980s, where judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts. The protagonist, Judge Valentina Lorenzi--"La Bambina"--stumbles upon an extensive money laundering operation involving prominent public officials. Determined to nip Valentina's investigations in the bud, the criminals attack the judge and leave her clinging to life. Ultimately, Valentina is faced with a troubling question: will she break her vow to uphold the letter of the law in order to bring those responsible to justice?
The final novella, The Triple Dream of the Prosecutor, by judge and novelist Giancarlo De Cataldo, teeters between dream and reality. Prosecutor Mandati is engaged in a life-long feud with the corrupt mayor of Novere, and his efforts finally pay off on the night before the trial of his life. Kafkaesque, tumultuous, and thoroughly gripping.
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