Biblioteca Antoniana Presents: Le cattive stelle (Under Bad Stars)

After stops in Naples, Piano di Sorrento and Vico Equense, the novel, published on 13 October, will make its way to Ischia.

The Biblioteca Comunale Antoniana “Pietro Greco” invites you to meet the author on Saturday, 24 October, at 6:00 pm. Professor Ciro Esposito will be in conversation with the author, and Dr Lucia Annicelli will moderate the event.

We look forward to seeing you!

In the narrow streets and courtyards of the Rione Sanità, there are people who know the future before it happens. Or so believe those who knock on the door of Consuelo, the most famous and feared fortune-teller in the neighbourhood.

Intelligent and ruthless, for years she has instilled the slow poison of fear in her clients — already fragile and desperate people — simply for the pleasure of watching them come back to her. But rumours begin to spread, and someone stops believing her. Then, one afternoon, the cards fall silent forever. Consuelo is found dead in her apartment.

Father Raffaele has recently returned to Sanità after forty years away. He has a suspicion he does not even dare to voice: that his brother Peppino, one of the most feared crime bosses in the neighbourhood, may have been involved in the fortune-teller’s death.

But Peppino is not the only suspect. One by one, Raffaele questions Consuelo’s clients, men and women who had sought comfort in her and instead found an enemy.

The culprit moves undisturbed among the district’s historic buildings and Baroque churches. And in Sanità, the truth is like laundry hanging out to dry on terraces: all it takes is a gust of wind for it to fly away.

Raffaele must grasp it before it vanishes — even if that means putting family ties, his faith and everything he thought he knew to the test.

About the author

Anna Vera Viva is an Italian writer. Originally from Salento, she moved to Naples in 1982. She has been writing for many years and is also a screenwriter for documentary films and short films, including La consegna and Specchio delle mie brame, both nominated for the David di Donatello Awards.

With Garzanti, she has published Questioni di sangue (2022), the first instalment in Father Raffaele’s investigations, and L’artiglio del tempo. Un mistero tra gli oscuri vicoli di Napoli (2023).

#biblioischia #bibliotecaantonianapietrogreco