Giacomo Gensini

The book is not about Genoa, despite its title. The city is merely a setting, devoid of imagery and depth, in which to recount the life of a police officer. The protagonist is a young man without hope, who believes that life is > merely a scheme of the system, one of many, but men do not control it, not even those gathered at Palazzo Ducale. The system is a headless machine, an autonomous machine . What matters is the group, belonging through courageous and violent actions. This young officer’s entire life is a succession of drills, off-duty leaves, overtime, and interventions against hooligans and protesters. He is assigned to a special squad trained for the G8 summit in Genoa. The drills, grueling and geared toward counter-insurgency tactics, reinforce esprit de corps. In Genoa, the young man’s convictions are put to the test, not so much by what happens, but by his love for a girl who might just convince him that destiny is in our hands, that it is not true that «human beings are what they are». Then everything spirals out of control: the officer takes part in the raid on Via Diaz and discovers that the mysterious girl, met in Genoa, is there among the beaten, bleeding youths. Once again, it was destiny that decided: > I was fucked, I always had been, I cried because Sara was right, I had had my chance to choose, I cried for myself, because I understood that now it really was over . The novel’s overarching theme is cynicism as the consequence of a hopeless life. The story, however, unfolds monotonous and slow, devoid of narrative pace and without the author managing to grant psychological depth to the characters, starting with the protagonist. The greatest disappointment comes from Genoa, which is simply not there (has the author ever set foot in the streets where the G8 clashes took place?), with the result that the whole affair feels cold and artificial. Why not read it? It is boring and pointless.