Paperback: A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a popular beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks like a hopeless case for Guido Guerrieri, counsel for the defence, a Senegalese peddler is accused of the crime. Faced with small-town racism fuelled by the recent immigration from Africa, Guido attempts to exploit the esoteric workings of the Italian courts.
More than a perfectly paced legal thriller, this relentless suspense novel transcends the genre. A powerful attack on racism, and a fascinating insight into the Italian judicial process, it is also an affectionate portrait of a deeply humane hero.
Involuntary Witness was published in 2002 and translated into English in 2005 by Patrick Creagh and has been adapted as the basis for a popular television series in Italy.
About the author: Gianrico Carofiglio, born in 1961, was an anti-Mafia prosecutor in the southern Italy city of Bari, Puglia, for many years. He has been responsible for some of the most important indictments in the region involving organized crime, corruption and the traffic in human beings. He is now a member of the Italian Senate. He has sold over 2.5 million books and Involuntary Witness, his debut novel and the first in a series with defence lawyer Guido Guerrieri, is in its 49th edition in Italy. It won numerous literary prizes and has been translated into eleven languages.
About the translator: Patrick Creagh (1930-2012) was a British poet, academic and translator.
Rating: 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment