It is the summer of 1986. Leo Pontecorvo, an internationally revered pediatric oncologist, is forty-eight. His beautiful wife, Rachel, is the devoted mother of Filippo and Samuel, two amiable, well adjusted pre-teens. In a sprawling villa on the outskirts of Rome, the Pontecorvos are gathered for dinner. In the living room, the evening news plays on the television. But nobody pays it any mind. That is, until Dr. Pontecorvo's name surfaces in a news item that will annihilate this moment of perfect intimacy and change the lives of the Pontecorvos forever.
Leo Pontecorvo has been accused of a vile crime, and now a spotlight is turned on him that reveals the mistakes, regrets, and contradiction of a lifetime. Every detail of his private and professional life is about to come under scrutiny, to be debated and dissected by both friends and foes, by ravenous reporters and punctilious prosecutors. Overnight, Leo Pontecorvo will be transformed into a modern-day Jove, a twenty-first century Gregor Samsa, and everyman whose fundamental guilt is assumed and who thus deserves every ounce of the ridicule and scorn that befall him.
Alessandro Poperno is widely acknowledged as one of today's most talented European novelists. His singular voice is always possessed of tenderness and enormous generosity of heart; his vision is broad and encompassing; his psychological insights penetrating and undeniable. In this first installment of a diptych entitled The Friendly Fire of Memories, Alessandro Piperno paints a broad canvas and fills it with psychologically complex characters that readers will instantly recognize and never forget.
