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2000s: Four days of Rain in the City of Naples, Waiting for the Occurrence of an Extraordinary
Malacqua
What you need to know before your trail
After a four-day deluge, Naples is flooded. Buildings collapse, sinkholes appear. Strange events spread across the city: ghostly voices emit from the Castel dell’Ovo and a neglected child finds a singing coin. A melancholy journalist searches for meaning, as the narrative takes us into the minds of those who have suffered in the floods. Mysteriously withdrawn from publication until Pugliese’s death in 2012, and only now appearing in English, Malacqua is a richly peopled portrait of a much-mythologised city.
Travel Guide
A tour around Naples
Apparently the title malacqua has an interesting meaning ‘In Naples “mal’acqua” means “when things get bad.”
“Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministration so that it has become a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Malacqua
Destination/Location: Naples Author: Nicola Pugliese Departure: 2000s
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