"Luca Spaghetti is not only one of my favorite people in the world, but also a natural-born storyteller. . . . This [is a] marvelous book." -Elizabeth Gilbert When Luca Spaghetti (yes, that's really his name) was asked to show a writer named Elizabeth Gilbert around Rome, he had no idea how his life was about to change. She embraced his Roman ebullience, and Luca in turn became her guardian angel, determined that his city would help Liz out of her funk. Filled with colorful anecdotes about food, language, soccer, daily life in Rome, and Luca's own fish-out-of-water moments as a visitor to the United States-and culminating with the episodes in Liz's bestselling memoir, told from Luca's side of the table-Un Amico Italiano is a book that no fan of Eat, Pray, Love will want to miss.

An essential companion volume to the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love. Experience the Rome that inspired and changed Elizabeth Gilbert. His name became famous due to his encounter with Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love. He is none other than the character 'creatively' named... Luca Spaghetti. When Luca Spaghetti (yes, that's really his name) was asked to show a writer called Elizabeth around Rome, he had no idea how his life was about to change. She embraced his Roman ebullience, and Luca in turn became her guardian angel, determined that his city would help Liz out of her funk. Filled with colourful anecdotes about food, language, soccer, daily life in Rome, and culminating with the episodes in Liz's bestselling memoir told from Luca's side of the table this is a book that every traveller to Rome will find enriching and no fan of Eat, Pray, Love will want to miss. AUTHOR: Luca Spaghetti was born in 1970 in Rome, where he lives and works as a Certified Public Accountant. He loves Roman cooking, American music, and the Lazio soccer team. This is his first book.

From the author of Margherita Dolce Vita One late-winter morning as he is "hop-hiking" downhill toward his character-building destination, a vomit-yellow cube surrounded by a garden of barbarously unkempt weeds known as the Bisacconi elementary school, Stefano Benni's young hero encounters a peculiar man--as big as a mountain and as filthy as a garbage dump, with a vast beard the color of a dung-heap, dressed from head to foot in layers and rags, and in the company of a swarm of buzzing flies. A god, perhaps? A pagan divinity? Who can tell! After a brief tête-à-tête, this earthy apparition endows the young boy with a rare gift: an internal "duoclock" that allows him to see into the future and at the same time exist in the present with an uncommon fullness. Meet Timeskipper. Timeskipper sees and foresees the epochal events of his era from postwar reconstruction to the birth of television--from the golden age of rock'n'roll to the revolutionary sixties and the turbulent seventies. These events are tenderly offset by his own private experiences: his first love, his first job, leaving home, hilariously wild adventures with oddball acquaintances. This vibrant fictional character is the repository of our collective experience. His is the story of our time, an era of momentous change. A moving and inventive satiric tale in which imagination defies corruption and conformity, in which the innocence of yesteryear comes face-to-face with the moral aridity of today's money-obsessed society, Timeskipper is one of Stefano Benni's most touching and enduring creations. Colored by Benni's trademark linguistic inventiveness and irresistible humor, this is a coming-of-age story with a difference.

A fable for children and adults: a story of life, death, and terrorism—in the grand tradition of Exupéry’s The Little Prince When we first meet 93-year-old millionaire Baron Lamberto, he has been diagnosed with 24 life-threatening ailments—one for each of the 24 banks he owns. But when he takes the advice of an Egyptian mystic and hires servants to chant his name over and over again, he seems to not only get better, but younger. Except then a terrorist group lays siege to his island villa, his team of bank managers has to be bussed in to help with the ransom negotiations, and a media spectacle breaks out . . . A hilarious and strangely moving tale that seems ripped from the headlines—although actually written during the time the Red Brigades were terrorizing Italy—Gianni Rodari’s Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto has become one of Italy’s most beloved fables. Never before translated into English, the novel is a reminder, as Rodari writes, that “there are things that only happen in fairytales.”

It is 1938 and fascist Italy has imposed its infamous race laws. A young Jewish professor entertains a tormented passion for the beautiful and enigmatic Sonia. She is everything that he is not - the privileged daughter of a family that is wealthy, prominent and, above all, gentile. He wins her affections, but the price is great. Winner of the Moravia Prize for Fiction, The Jewish Husband is a bittersweet story of passion, hatred, cruelty and oppression.

The eighth Commissario Ricciardi historical mystery from the author of The Bottom of Your Heart “will surprise readers at every turn” (La Reppublica). In the abyss of a profound personal crisis, Commissario Ricciardi feels unable to open himself up to life. He has refused the love of both Enrica and Livia and the friendship of his partner, Maione. Contentment for Ricciardi proves as elusive as clues to the latest crime he has been asked to investigate. The beautiful, haughty Bianca, countess of Roccaspina, pleads with Ricciardi to investigate a homicide that was officially closed months ago. In the tense, charged atmosphere of 1930s Italy, where Benito Mussolini and his fascist thugs monitor the police closely, an unauthorized investigation is grounds for immediate dismissal and possible criminal charges. But Ricciardi’s thirst for justice cannot be sated. A tightly plotted historical noir novel, this eighth installment in the Commissario Ricciardi series is a gripping meditation on revenge and justice in which each character’s soul reveals itself to be made of glass. “The construction of Glass Souls is remarkable. It’s like a very sophisticated mosaic in which each protagonist occupies precisely the right amount of space.” —La Reppublica “Love, longing, and loss suffuse de Giovanni’s elegiac, autumnal eighth Commissario Ricciardi mystery set in 1930s Naples . . . Though Ricciardi risks infuriating his bosses—and unknowingly even greater danger from the Fascist forces who have him under surveillance—he can’t resist the conundrum. Nor in all likelihood will readers.” —Publishers Weekly “A must read for those interested in exploring International Noir.” —Mystery Tribune

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series. Suburra takes a deep dive into a politically and financially corrupt contemporary Italy, where a mighty local crime family, the Mafia, corrupt politicians, and new rabid criminal elements battle each other for control of a glittering prize--control over a multibillion dollar development twenty miles from the Italian capital. During the final days of Silvio Berlusconi's reign, a massive development proposal that will turn the depressed coastal settlement of Ostia into a gambling paradise, a Las Vegas on the Mediterranean, is winding its way through the Italian legislature thanks to the sponsorship of politicians in the pay of crime syndicates. It's business as usual in the Italian capital. Or so it seems. A vicious gang of local thugs loyal to nobody but themselves is insisting on a bigger cut than agreed upon. The Mafia and their political puppets aren't going to back down without a fight. Orchestral in its movement and sweeping in its ambition, Suburra is a compelling, provocative portrait of contemporary Rome--a city prey to pitiless criminal factions and political opportunism. Suburra has already been adapted into a critically acclaimed Italian film and soon to be a Netflix Original Series.