On Thursday 10 February at the Marsilio Ficino Library at 6 p.m. Marco Renzi and Gianni Sestucci present the book La verità su tutto (MONDADORI, 2022) by Vanni Santoni in the presence of the author.
Cleopatra Mancini is a young woman with a quiet and satisfying life - a fulfilling relationship, a well-established career, a nice house - when one day she stumbles upon a video that upsets her to the point of changing the course of her existence. It is a video in which she thinks she recognises her ex-girlfriend Emma. But what happened to Emma after Cleo cheated on her and then left her? How could she have ended up in such a video, looking so succubus and lost? Is it her fault? Is it because of the harm he did to her?
Guilt is the fuse that sets off an increasingly urgent and extreme investigation into the problem of evil, and from there into that of good, redemption and salvation. Cleo thus sets out to discover the most unusual spiritual realities present in Italy, from the Hare Krishna to the Leprechauns, from the Smeragdini to the friars of Zeitzé. An exploration that distances her more and more from her previous life, until she breaks all bridges and joins a small community in the Apennines populated by bizarre characters.
At the culmination of her journey, Cleo - who by now calls herself Shakti Devi - will in turn found a spiritual and visionary community, destined to become ever larger and more powerful and to take on sect-like contours.
Modern-day Siddhartha or charlatan? Liar or saint? The boundary is as blurred as ever.
An ambitious novel, steeped in irony and narrative fun: pure literary vitality.
For info: biblioteca.ficino@comunefiv.it - 0559125291
Reservation is compulsory (click here).
A Green Pass is compulsory.