“The man had turned off the light and lay down again. He hadn’t fallen asleep again.“
We enter the story with a sense of suspicion, almost thriller-like, especially in the opening pages, where the first chapter ended with a resounding wow. This driving force drove the reader to read and unravel the narrative, rich in details, descriptions, objects, and lists, until reaching the midpoint of the book, precisely halfway through, where a new and resounding wow took us straight to the end.
The back cover tells us we’re in Chloe’s life, of which there’s no trace until the second section; yet even when she appears before the reader’s eyes, it’s always fleeting: she’s not a character you can grasp, so complex is she. A well-structured character, with no personality at all.
Everything around Chloe seems superficial, decorative, and serves only to distance her from the evil and anguish of her past that prevents her from facing the truth. This is precisely the crux of our story: what is the truth? Does it exist? Can a man grasp it? By distancing herself from reality, Chloe builds fears and lies that form the foundation of her new world, which doesn’t lead to happiness.
In a way we can’t fully explain, we felt like the protagonist, searching for new paths to escape the life we know, with the masochistic urge to take the one that will cause us the greatest pain in the future. Meanwhile, like Chloe, we continue to navigate social media, physical perfection, (assumed) beauty, and a dark side to cultivate with the use of sleeping pills.
The book doesn’t pretend to provide answers to the questions and mysteries it presents, nor does it offer any certain redemption for the characters; there’s no happy ending because it’s not a fairy tale, but pure reality that tells us that our lives can be very dark, they can be beautiful if we trust others, but others can disappoint us, even until the last page, and everything turns upside down, and the longed-for truth is merely a mirage, created by us.
Bacà’s writing is clear and accessible to all readers; it’s rich in detail and descriptive, so we recommend it to those who enjoy this narrative style and, as mentioned, those who enjoy a good twist. Each image is enriched word by word, leading to an unexpected evolution.
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Fabio Bacà, L’era dell’Acquario, Adelphi, Milano, 2025