Celeste's War
Marco Magnone
Barriera
Coming of age
Two of the best-loved Italian children’s authors, a powerful story, two Italo-Maghrebi brothers and their difficult life in the suburbs.
On the outskirts of Turin, a city in the midst of an identity crisis, stands the Barriera di Milano district, a blend of colours and cultures, poverty and violence, anger for the present and fear for the future. And if you’re a half-Maghrebi, half-Italian boy, it’s hard not to feel like you’re in a cage.
This is the story of 16-year-old Yasin, caught between first love and wanting to belong: to a family, a society, a group of friends.
But it’s also the story of Malik, his older brother, who has already been to prison and made choices he can’t easily go back on.
Between them is a special girl Aria, a fiery character and a tragic fate that screams out for revenge. Or justice.
- Universal themes addressed: the crisis of parental expectations, the relationship between brothers, love and sexual identity, juvenile delinquency.
- A language that expresses the alternating voices of the two unforgettable main characters, in a balance between coming of age, romance and noir.
- A cross-section of our society, where the new generations grow up without identity labels, caught between worlds that only appear poles apart to adults.
- A gripping story, from the first to the last page, with a complex interweaving of unpredictable and surprising endings.
Publisher:
Piemme
Target:
Young adult
Year:
2023
Author
Manlio Castagna
A screenwriter, director, writer and film critic, Manlio Castagna has also been involved in the artistic direction of the Giffoni Film Festival for more than 20 years. He made his debut in children’s fiction in 2018 with the bestselling Petrademone trilogy (Mondadori), which has been translated into several languages. Since then, he has explored many different genres: from historical fantasy with La notte delle malombre (The Night of the Malombre) and Draconis Chronicon, to horror with Goodwill and Le Belve (The Beasts), passing through the “story” of cinema with the manual 116 film da vedere prima dei 16 anni (116 Films To See Before You’re 16) and the novel Dedalo & Dharma, up to social noir with Barriera (all for the Mondadori group). La reincarnazione delle sorelle Klun (The Reincarnation of the Klun Sisters) and Prova a non dormire (Try Not to Sleep) are his adult fiction books. In 2022, he made his film debut as a director and screenwriter with “Il viaggio degli eroi”, produced by Rai Cinema and rewarded with record audience numbers on Rai1.
Author
Marco Magnone
Marco Magnone is one of the children’s authors who is most appreciated and requested by schools, events and reading groups, thanks to which he meets thousands and thousands of young readers throughout Italy every year. He also teaches at Scuola Holden in Turin and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, as well as collaborating on the artistic direction of the Mare di Libri festival in Rimini and Storie in Cammino in Firenzuola.
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