Description
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER,SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES'Missiroli's erotically charged novel is currently being made into a Netflix series, but this intimate and ultimately moving analysis of desire and the long-term legacy of betrayal deserves to be read: completely absorbing'
DAILY MAIL'An absolute scorcher'
EVENING STANDARD'A gripping novel exploring the tensions in an apparently idyllic marriage'
FINANCIAL TIMES'Fidelity thrilled me (I read it in one sitting), made me think, and moved me deeply. It manages to be as deep as any literature, and as irresistible as any gossip'
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER'Missiroli cuts right through to the darkness of our inner lives'
ROBERTO SAVIANOCarlo and Margherita: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties. They are in love, but they also harbour desires that stray beyond the confines of their bedroom: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia; Margherita fantasises about her physiotherapist, Andrea.
Love, with its unassuming power, ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita's mother Anna – a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments.
But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, will love be enough to save them?
Marco Missiroli's first novel SENZA CODA won the Campiello Opera Prima (the Italian equivalent of the Costa First Book award).
Published to great acclaim, FIDELITY was a #1 bestseller in Italy, was shortlisted for the Premio Strega (the Italian Booker) and is currently being made into a Netflix limited series.
Born in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, Marco now lives in Milan.
Fidelity thrilled me (I read it in one sitting), made me think, and moved me deeply.
It manages to be as deep as any literature, and as irresistible as any gossip. It is a
brilliant work by a brilliant writer.—
Jonathan Safran Foer The book about infidelity that has shaken up Italy.—The Times Missiroli’s erotically charged novel is currently being made into a Netflix series, but this intimate and ultimately moving analysis of desire and the long-term legacy of betrayal deserves to be read – moving seamlessly between perspectives, we’re brought up close to the lives of its sympathetically imagined characters in a way that’s completely absorbing.—Daily Mail An absolute scorcher… Clever structured with characters criss-crossing through one another’s lives and the streets of Milan, with the second half of the book taking place nine years later, Fidelity teems with pain and pleasure, blood, sweat, and semen… Its descriptions of gory fight scenes between both dogs and men pulse with a kind of brutal machismo I’m not sure you’d find in an English novel today… Read Fidelity before the end of the year. Books are almost always better than their TV adaptations.—Evening Standard A gripping novel exploring the tensions in an apparently idyllic marriage, where a couple in their thirties is tested by their attraction to others, and by their own accumulation of desires and disappointments.—Financial Times A must-read… Marco Missiroli, with intelligence and empathy, considers how and why such people might find themselves wandering beyond the boundaries of promises they have made… This subtle novel has been lauded as a revealing study in marital infidelity, but it also moves beyond the theme of fidelity in traditional marriage to explore different kinds of sexual fidelity. And it touches on more abstract notions of loyalty and betrayal, including the idea of faithfulness to a family, an idea, a place, or a sense of one’s true self.—Sydney Morning Herald A writer of pure excellence.—Emmanuel Carrère Missiroli cuts right through to the darkness of our inner lives.—Roberto Saviano Powerful, delicate, exquisite.—Claudio Magris Masterful: Missiroli’s words are fire… The ending – chilling – is just as good as that of Joyce’s The Dead.—Corriere della Sera You’ll feel like taking refuge in the pages of this book and never leaving its confines.—La Stampa With all-encompassing writing, Marco Missiroli opens the rooms of his characters and the streets of Milan, the thoughts and the concealed desires, makes dialogue and silences reverberate with the spontaneity of great narrators.—Il Foglio
