In the beginning there was an idea. There was the desire to talk about God (sic). What is this God? What do we seek in this Father who has forgotten us, but whom everyone seems never to forget? What are we looking for in this being, in this world, in this life that is ours, but never fully belongs to us? Where do our children come from, what is this something that has no name and yet exists, and have we at least once touched it with the fingers...

Frollo is the name of the protagonist of the story: a child made of gingerbread who one day finds himself on an adventure bigger than himself. The terrible voracious son of the King is eating the whole country to pieces. He can only be stopped by going in search of a magical substance that can appease his hunger. Frollo sets off and the adventures begin. The story, in addition to crossing the mythical places of fairy-tale anthropophagy, those exp...

Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen, is a legendary and controversial figure of contemporary India, although virtually unknown to European audiences. Her exemplary story of a warrior woman, forced against her will to take up arms, offers us the opportunity to address the theme of the power of rebellion and violence; and here above all, since it is a woman, the aspect of sexual violence stands out, and Phoolan's action as a voice of female courage wher...

“Ladies and gentlemen, please, do not mention Pinocchio in front of my friend!” That puppet in fact had important relatives and through magic, spells and blue fairies, he became a child. My friend, however, did not make it and remained a donkey; as a boy they called him Lucio and I continue to call him that: Lucio the Donkey. Freely inspired by “Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi ...

Stories about stones tiny and gigantic stones houses of janas and tombs of giants. Ancient stones of an ancient island shaped like a sandal in the middle of the Middle Sea. Sentinel-stones that guard, underground, treasures and terrible maghedde-flies, as big as crows. Stones as heavy as stones immobile for a thousand and a thousand years hoping that someone will overturn them to stretch a little! Stones where the children let their old fathers ...

La fila indiana was born as a collection of short stories. Short stories written in a hurry – as Ascanio Celestini observes – after the burning of a nomad camp, after the shipwreck of a boat of emigrants fleeing or after the crazy and calculated declaration of some politician. Around these fragments the author has sewn a series of old and new stories to which others have been added over the years until it has become a complete, compelling and...