Carne Mia - Review

4/5 stars

Because of my work with translations, sadly I don't read too many books written in my mother tongue, but this one came to me somehow by accident and I am really grateful for it.

I met Roberto Alajmo - the author - at BookCity Milano and he wrote me the sweetest dedication I ever received, but I remember the day because of how he talked about the book and the story it contained. His words were so captivating I had to buy the book and read it. He referred also to his personal writer's process, of how it involves different aspects of his life as a man, even the tv series he watches: he said that after three years of nights spent watching American fictions this book has much to do with that world.

"Cerco di non affezionarmi troppo ai personaggi di cui scrivo, quanto più che altro di lavorare come i collezionisti di farfalle quando le puntano a uno spillo e le osservano."

The plot derives from a true story he read on a newspaper and, even if the outcome is fiction, it doesn't really matter: the lives depicted in the "Carne mia" are so vivid and precise and real that you follow them to the very end. He leads you to believe that all the Italian justice system should do is catch up and solve the crimes here and in real life, at least for once. The book starts at the end, with two boys walking down a street in southern Spain, then the reader is thrown into the beginning of the story in Palermo, Sicily, a city that defines and shapes all the characters. They are bound to act in a certain way due to the background they have, or that's what they think anyway.

It has suspense, the chapters ends with a tiny cliffhanger that just keeps you wanting to know more, to understand how the two boys will arrive at that road, who are they, what kind of relationship they have to each other and the so called "bigger picture".

#carnemia #bookreview #robertoalajmo #sellerio