NON AVEVO CAPITO NIENTE | II EDIZ. 2010 | DIEGO DE SILVA

Non avevo capito niente introduces us to Vincenzo Malinconico, a Neapolitan lawyer who is semi-unemployed (or at least pretends to be busy) as a way to fill his days. His life is full of small absurdities: he shares a studio with other “fake busy” colleagues, names his IKEA furniture as if they were family, tries to maintain bonds with his estranged wife and adolescent children. By chance he becomes the court-appointed defender of a Camorra undertaker, “Mimmo ’o Burzone,” forcing him to dust off his legal knowledge. Then there is Alessandra Persiano, the beautiful prosecutor at the tribunal, who comes into his life in unexpected ways. Through Malinconico’s digressions, reflections, and comic moments the novel explores identity, alienation, memory, and the absurd in everyday life. Its style mixes irony, lightness, and touches of philosophical thought, allowing serious themes (family breakdown, crime, social inertia) to emerge through a lens that is humorous and humanizing.