Marcello, around thirty years old and a recent graduate without a proper job, lives in the tourist town of Viareggio—with his mother, of course. He fears that his girlfriend might be serious about him, and just as much that she might leave him. But his biggest concern is that he does not want to take over his father's bar under any circumstances. More out of defiance than anything else, Marcello applies for a doctoral position at the University of Pisa—and to everyone's surprise, including his own, he gets it. Marcello quickly becomes entangled in the intrigues of a legendary literature professor, who imposes a topic for his doctoral thesis on him: the literary work of the left-wing terrorist Tito Sella. But why is his professor so interested in the little-known Sella, who died in prison? And what does his supposedly lost autobiography reveal? Dario Ferrari tells the highly comical and engaging story of Marcello, who successfully resists growing up – and whose boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred: between literature and life, between the writing terrorist and himself.

In conversation with Anna Vollmer, Italian bestselling author Dario Ferrari talks about a precarious generation that faces a rather hopeless present with all kinds of tricks and a lot of humor.