Quando Fuori è Buio

What happens when we realise that we are very different adults from the ones we dreamed of becoming?

Is it more difficult to accept the failure of our ambitions, because life is something that happens to us by chance, or to find the strength to try to start over again?

In Rome, in the first two decades of the new millennium, the lives of Filippo, Giulia, Michele and Chiara intertwine. At the dawn of their thirties, they all find themselves, each in their own way, trapped in their own dissatisfaction.

Filippo lives a monotonous existence, alienated by his job in a large company and his relationship with Giulia, full of silence and misunderstandings. Sometimes, at night, he indulges in fantasies that he would never have in daylight. Giulia, a secretary in a law firm, has achieved everything she wanted as a girl, yet comparing herself to her childhood friends’ social media profiles fuels a sense of emptiness that makes her feel invisible.

Michele, who lives in the same building as Filippo and Giulia, spends his days in an existential stupor, searching for a way to finally feel like he belongs somewhere.

Meanwhile, Chiara, Michele’s best friend and a doctoral student, struggles against the academy that exploits her without recognising her value; the only thing she seems to be really good at is living away from home in her city.

One evening, by chance, their destinies intertwine, giving an unexpected turn to their lives and triggering a dynamic that will finally lead them to change forever.

After Frenesia, Flavio Nuccitelli returns to fiction to tell the story of a generation in transition, that of thirty-somethings grappling with the (perhaps) end of their dreams and unable to decide on their desires.

A book for those who have just discovered they are adults and for those who have already become adults without really understanding how.