Books

La vita paga il sabato (Life Pays Back on Saturdays)

La vita paga il sabato (Life Pays Back on Saturdays) Davide Longo
Pub date 21st June 2022
Original publisher Einaudi, Italy
International publishers Germany – Rowohlt

Set between the silence of a town nestled in the mountains of Piedmont, and the noisy Rome of cinema, politics, and corruption, the mystery of a woman who for many was a muse, a dream. 

A new case for Vincenzo Arcadipane and Corso Bramard.

Arcadipane receives a call in the middle of the night: an elderly man has been found dead in his elegant Jaguar. Mysteriously, the car had stopped in a pasture high up in the Alps.

He is Terenzio Fuci, a famous film producer, brother of a powerful former Christian Democrat minister. His wife, Vera Ladich, a former actress, muse of a whole generation, has disappeared. What were they doing in a small mountain town with 37 inhabitants, so far away from their luxurious Roman home?

In charge of the investigations, Commissioner Arcadipane must leave his Turin, a city he knows by heart, and that knows him like an old lover, and temporarily move to Clot, a cluster of houses guarded by a dam, that tightens the valley like a noose. Waiting for him are the silences of suspicious people, and a puzzle that will blow your mind.

Around the car there are no footprints, as if the killer had come, murdered Terenzio and taken away Vera without ever touching the ground.

With the help of his old friend and mentor Corso Bramard, along with the undisciplined and indispensable agent Isa Mancini – both of whom are dealing with their own struggles – Arcadipane must dig amongst old secrets and new selfishness, and untangle many threads. Until the discovery that for all, or almost all, life pays back on Saturdays.

Praise for La vita paga il sabato

“This book was not written by Davide Longo. This book was written by Vincenzo Arcadipane. It happens with the great characters, they are so meaningful that they exist for real (…) Behind it all, there is so much more than a mere ‘whoduunit’, and there are many more stories, some just outlined, but that develop in your head a spiderweb of possibilities and emotions…Arcadipane is one of the most beautiful and engaging characters you can find in a novel. And not simply a crime one”
– Carlo Lucarelli for La lettura

“In this novel Longo overcame himself, creating an almost perfect narrative universe. (…) Attentive to all details and all psychological developments of his characters, Longo was able to create a capital literary noir, one of the best read recently”
Tuttolibri

“Each of Davide Longo’s novels feels like a better homecoming”
La Repubblica

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