Contemporary fiction
The narrator is a 25-year-old who feels hollow and trapped in Milan, a city as hollow as he is, though permeated by twilight glimmers and stubborn seductions. Seba’s heart, however, is not empty; he is a ‘beauty addict’ (as he describes himself), a soul sensitive to the ‘pink meadows’ of LSD, inclined towards a deliberate and painful form of sexual passivity. He comes from a village in the heart of Sardinia, drawn to the dazzling world of fashion. The narrator is struck by this witness to his time; he wants to know more. And so, in the whirlwind of a long nocturnal confession, Seba tells and tells and tells, recounting the spiral of dreams and failures that have marked his years, between Rome, London and Milan. His golden spark remains intact; his desperate vitality endures amidst the heap of pretences and rubble of the world around him. Santetti delves into Seba’s heart, brings into focus the circles he moves in, and presents us with a luminous tale of a loser amidst the unfulfilled promises of an entire generation, set against the backdrop of an opulent, ungenerous, cruel Milan.
Source: synopsis: Mondadori.it
Publication date: 23 September 2025
Pietro Santetti, born in Florence in 1993, is a writer and former professional horseman. A graduate of the Scuola Holden, he made his literary debut with the novel *Uomini di cavalli* (Mondadori, 2022), which won him the Viareggio-Rèpaci Debut Novel Prize; in it, he recounts the rise, abuses and obsessions within the world of competitive horse riding. In 2025, he published *Scheggia d’oro a Milano* (Gold Splinter in Milan), also with Mondadori, a raw and disillusioned coming-of-age novel. The protagonist, Sebastiano, leaves the provinces to explore his identity, personal freedom and the world of fashion in Milan, amidst dreams of success and the twilight glimmer of the metropolis. With his crisp style, Santetti explores the paths to self-determination and the disillusionments of Millennials, whilst also touching on themes related to fluidity, desire and the search for one’s place in the world.
