Winner of the Premio Letterario Internazionale Nino Martoglio 2017
Winner of the Premio Letterario Nazionale Carlo Levi 2018

“A sharp and surprising book”
Corriere della Sera

“Musically conducted, twirling and flipping following its characters’ moves, Pedullà’s writing creates the illusion of flying without lifting your feet off the ground”
Il Messaggero

“A homage to a Rome on the run”
La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno

“A very contemporary book… a gift both to the common reader and the more sophisticated one… A tried-and-true engine to dissect reality”
Il Quotidiano del Sud

“A love story, you would say, for those skates, for the relief from the mediocrity of life, for the illusion of ‘lifting off the ground’”
La Gazzetta di Parma

“It hypnotizes you right away”
La Gazzetta del Sud

On one of the most beautiful hills of Rome, overlooking the maze of domes and terraces of the eternal city, a group of skaters meet every Sunday to perform an odd ritual made of freedom, Eighties songs, and vintage clothes. Ruggiero and Olimpia – a happily married couple in their late thirties – find themselves hypnotized by the circular movements of the skaters, which suddenly bring them back to their teenage years. Week after week they are dragged into a never-ending dance in which real life is only a distant echo – whirling between the illusion of eternal youth and the incessant passage of time. While the mild spring afternoons leave room to a sweltering summer, things are bound to change forever.

With a fluid, witty prose, Pedullà relentlessly chronicles the erosion of a complex system of small events and minute details: ordinary life.

“…that aimless movement concerned everyone. It was not only about a group of middle-aged kids who spent their Sundays flipping through the air. […] There, suddenly, you could find the best and the worst of all of us. Our anxieties. Our mistakes. Our hopes, maybe. I needed to understand. And so, I started writing…”