Marco Martani (Spoleto, 1968), a successful screenwriter and director, has chosen the noir genre for his literary debut, published by DeA Planeta.

On Saturday 25 May at 5.30 p.m. at the “G. Carducci” city library, included in the Maggio dei Libri initiative, Martani will talk about his novel “Come un Padre”, a work that has already attracted the interest of international producers.

Ada Urbani, Councillor for Culture of the City of Spoleto, and journalist Antonella Manni will also participate in the meeting.

One of the founders of the film and television production company Wildside, which produced ‘L’amica geniale’ and ‘The Young Pope’, Martani is the author of over 50 screenplays for the small and big screen, including ‘Notte prima degli esami’, ‘La mafia uccide solo d’estate’, ‘Se Dio vuole’ and ‘In Guerra per Amore’ which was nominated for a David di Donatello for Best Original Screenplay in 2017. Martani takes the opposite route to the autofiction that has been so successful in recent years.

The book tells the story of Orso, the infallible right-hand man of a boss from Marseille, known as the Red. He is a lonely, unhappy man, and a heart ailment has made him realise that he is perhaps near the end. On his hospital bed, he asks the Red to help him fulfil an old wish, by virtue of their friendship: to see again the woman he once loved, and their little girl. Many years before, in fact, Orso had to leave them to save their lives, he promised not to look for them any more, and respected the terrible pact; but he has never stopped thinking about how much he has lost, and the man he could have been. And so now he finds himself with a photo in his hand, heading for Italy, in an attempt to fill a void. Little does he know that the gates of his personal hell are about to open wide.