Contested stories

It is the story of two young people, Carlo and Sarah, who are forced to live in hiding in the undergrounds of Naples, a city ravaged by deadly epidemics that have shattered its social fabric. Devastated by power struggles and torn apart by the rise of pervasive, multiethnic crime, Naples in the novel emerges as a reflection of a sick world, where arbitrary freedom devoid of rules and morals has become indifferent to any notion of social justice.

In this inverted and concealed version of Naples, Carlo and Sarah meet by chance, "colliding" in what was once a museum but is now a villa turned refuge for Sarah and her two Sinti brothers. Both orphans, living on the margins of society, Carlo and Sarah will struggle to find meaning in their young lives through one final, desperate attempt to escape together across the sea in search of their own freedom.

Amid a whirlwind of random encounters, the novel unfolds the story of Carlo's family: from his grandfather, a mythical figure of his childhood, to his parents, a middle-class Neapolitan couple, and ultimately to his fateful meeting with Sarah and her brothers. Young people forced to survive in an underground world of abuse, deceit, and violence, a world as broken and diseased as the one above.