Some weeks ago I and the author decided to publish a double review in Italian and English about the same book: the unpublished manuscript titled L’Imbroglione that I translated into The Swindler. As I said, The Swindler is an unpublished manuscript because Italian publishers rejected it! The book is the latest literary work of Italian journalist Antonino D’Anna. I accepted to review this unpublished manuscript because I know about the writing style of this author-journalist and, indeed, I got confirmation of my belief: The Swindler is a real masterpiece of Italian literature, a masterpiece that Italian publishers refused to publish. For this reason, I invite foreign publishers to read this review and release the book in their Country.
The Swindler tells about the social and political condition in Italy, depicting a decaying country, agonizing sometimes, split between bribery and moral decline. Italy is a republic kept by swindles. This is the clear message of this literary work. In the background of a crumbling country, you can hear the narrating voice of a mysterious Swindler, one who reached the heights of social and political power just thanks to swindles and compromises. The story about The Swindler is a typical Italian story. With a Boccaccio’s style, the author lets the narrating voice of this Italian swindler tell about a small group of former wealthy men, such as politicians, doctors, priests and mafia bosses, who, affected from deadly cancer, chose to die in a luxury clinic for the so called “sweet death”, or euthanasia, in a legal terminology.
Eye to Eye with a forthcoming death, these depraved men confess their misdeeds each one. At this stage, the author shows a parade of the worst faults and plagues of Italy, the ones who driven the country to the economic crisis, unemployment, social inequality and to the big scam to join the Euro. The doctor or professor tells about how he managed to steal money to his patients, 300 euro per a medical consultation, simply getting them to believe to take care their health. While, during the break among his consultations, he has sex with the secretary-nurse, who is eager to make a career in the same clinic managed by this money robber.
The mafia boss confesses the dealings that have driven him to get rich thanks to the poisons buried in the Land of The Fires, where more and more children get sick and die from cancer. The politician tells about the entrepreneur who asked him for help to avoid the shutdown of the brand on behalf of which he managed some factories who gave a job to honest workers’ families. I was very touched by the chapters about the Land of The Fires and the entrepreneur in troubles. They are just the ones that touched me up to cry. The entrepreneur and the children of the Land of the Fires are the side of an honest Italy, the one that in silence endures any kind of injustice and vexation. The entrepreneur begs the politician to prevent the closure of the company.
The politician, as a perfect hypocrite, promises his help, while he knows to not keep the promise and lies, while he knows to lie. Some days later, he is at dinner with the CEO who pretends to close the company while he went only to delocalize, while the journal reported the news about the suicide of the Italian entrepreneur. The latter, after waiting for the help of the politician, in vain, decided to commit suicide because unable to bear the umpteenth injustice of the Italian politics and the consequence to fire his workers. The novel continues with the confession of the priest, maybe a bishop, who, for misdeeds and depravation, defeated politicians and mafia bosses ten to one.
In the backstage, it is always him, the avid and handsome Swindler, who, thanks to the revelations of these former corrupted, nearly dying, men, by now, can, with the weapon of blackmail, gain richness and power in return of his silence, until the final twist. Who is the swindler, in reality? The novel should be published as soon as possible, to let readers discover the identity of the character. The story is well written, you can read in one breath, the characters are brought to live thanks to the ability of the author to use the typical sentences of their birth town. The Sicilian mafia boss, for instance, speaks a perfect and exhilarating Palermo’s dialect. You should absolutely read also the poignant chapters about the remembrances of the 1980s, in which it has been quoted the song by Luis Miguel titled “Ragazzi di Oggi”, where, despite all, and despite the faults of the First Republic, Italy still was a beautiful Country!
Rosalba Mancuso is the journalist, born in Sicily, who founded three online magazines in English. On Advicebooks Book Reviews, Rosalba shows her great passion for books, helping readers and book lovers choose and buy the best books she read and reviewed. She also worked as a contributor to print and online magazines and as a bilingual Italian-English writer. Here, Rosalba also offers room to authors and publishers who want to get their books reviewed through the voice of an avid reader like her. You must also know that this book review magazine lives thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you buy books through the affiliate links you find in her book reviews. This book review magazine is also funded by services of editorial reviews and book press releases.
