Two years after their divorce, Carla and Vito
reunite for a birthday dinner with their three children in Rome, after which
Vito goes missing. The hunt for Vito, the solution of the case by the police,
the final call by the judges: in cases like this, is there really ever one
clear unequivocal truth? "I wrote Una
storia nera with one idea in mind: to try to describe a character who was a
victim first and then a killer, and the ending would let the reader decide who
the character really was. I decided to write a novel that couldn’t be
pigeonholed in a single genre - noir, love story, family drama - but used the genres
to serve the novel. To really tell the stories of these individuals and their
particular world, through their stories." [Antonella Lattanzi]
Antonella Lattanzi (Bari, 1979) had her first two
novels, Devozione and Prima che tu mi tradisca, published by
Einaudi Stile libero. This year she has switched to Mondadori for her third
novel, Una storia nera (Cortina
d’Ampezzo Prize, Sila Prize and Restart Prize). Her latest has been sold in
over ten countries and will be made into a TV series by Lucky Red. Lattanzi
also scripted the films Fiore by
Claudio Giovannesi (2016 Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes) and 2night by Ivan Silvestrini (2016 Rome Film Fest. As a television writer,
she worked on Daria Bignardi’s program "Le Invasioni Barbariche". Lattanzi
contributes to TuttoLibri de La Stampa, il Venerdì di Repubblica, Robinson di
Repubblica. She has also been teaching at the Scuola Holden in Turin since
2010.