{"product_id":"9781609458317","title":"The City of the Living","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Nicola Lagioia, winner of the Strega Prize for Fiction, a spellbinding literary thriller based on the true story of one of the most vicious crimes in recent Italian history. An intoxicating novel that takes readers on a surprising journey into the darkest corners of contemporary Rome and of the human soul.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two “ordinary” young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three year old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBased on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, \u003cem\u003eThe City of the Living\u003c\/em\u003e is not only a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo’s \u003cem\u003eAnimal\u003c\/em\u003e, it is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome—a city that is unlivable and yet teeming with life, overrun by rats and wild animals, and plagued by corruption, drugs, and violence. Yet, the Eternal City is also a place that, more than any other in the world, seems to inspire a sense of absolute freedom in its inhabitants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProceeding in concentric circles, Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity—progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the breaking point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson’s \u003cem\u003eDevil in the White City,\u003c\/em\u003e an heir to Truman Capote’s \u003cem\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/em\u003e, and destined to cast on spell on fans of the Morbid podcast, \u003cem\u003eThe City of the Living\u003c\/em\u003e is Nicola Lagioia’s most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed novel to-date. Razor-sharp, unputdownable, devastating, it is the story not only of a crime but of human nature itself; of the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free; of who we are and who we can become.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nicola Lagioia","offers":[{"title":"Europa Editions |  Hardback | Cloth over boards |  2023-10-13","offer_id":44230054019327,"sku":"9781609458317","price":41.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_53cf2d18-9c3b-4e82-9c82-8c7371ed8c87.jpg?v=1700681786","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9781609458317","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}