The past is a foreign country

by Carofiglio, Gianrico, 1961-

Format: Print Book 2010
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy
Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library First Floor - Fiction Stacks FICTION Carofiglio
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  First Floor - Fiction Stacks
 
Call Number  FICTION Carofiglio
 
 
Summary
An international bestseller and winner of Italy's prestigious Premio Bancarella prize--an intense psychological thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley   As world-weary Lieutenant Chiti spends sleepless nights hunting for the serial rapist terrorizing his city, trainee lawyer Giorgio is befriended by dangerously charismatic Francesco. Slowly the innocent Giorgio is lured into a corrupt world of beautiful women and casual violence. Then one terrifying night Giorgio is forced to realize just how far he has left his past behind.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Changing direction from his legal-thriller series starring Guido Guerrieri (Reasonable Doubts, 2007), Carofiglio offers a noirish thriller about a naive pre-law student who becomes involved with a cardsharp and watches his life spin out of control (think The Talented Mr. Ripley). Giorgio is looking for a little excitement when he befriends the charismatic Francesco at a poker game. Soon Francesco is training Giorgio in the art of bilking suckers, and the pair becomes a formidable team. But poker games are the least of Francesco's interests. He lectures Giorgio in his version of Nietzschean philosophy, introduces him to women, and eventually enlists his help in smuggling cocaine from Spain to Italy. Giorgio knows he's in too deep but is powerless to extricate himself until the formidable Lieutenant Chiti, with shades of Dostoyevsky's Porfiry Petrovich, enters the picture, on the trail of a serial rapist. Carofiglio establishes the mood early we feel Francesco setting the hook in Giorgio and slowly, excruciatingly reeling him in and then he heightens the tension by jumping back and forth in time, revealing a little but not enough to allow us to relax. As Francesco plays Giorgio, so Carofiglio plays the reader.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Set largely in the southern Italian city of Bari, this stylish psychological thriller from Carofiglio (A Walk in the Dark) fuses Jack Kerouac's On the Road with hard-edged crime fiction a la Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallander saga. When model law student Giorgio Cipriani meets charismatic philosophy student Francesco Carducci, he becomes enthralled by Francesco's dangerous lifestyle. Within weeks, Giorgio has abandoned his studies for high stakes poker games in which he and his newfound mentor cheat players out of large sums of money. Giorgio soon finds his life filled with late-night poker scams, drinking, drugs, and sexual encounters with random women. When Francesco manipulates him to take a "holiday" in Spain, Giorgio realizes just how completely he's forsaken his past. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Chiti of the Bari police tries to identify an elusive criminal who's been assaulting local women. The intertwining plot lines build to a haunting ending. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Italy -- Fiction.
Legal stories.
Mystery fiction.
Publisher New York :Minotaur Books,2010
Edition 1st U.S. ed.
Other Titles Passato è una terra straniera.
Contributors Curtis, Howard, 1949-
Language English
Notes "A Thomas Dunne book."
Description 244 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 9780312383961
0312383967
Other Classic View