First Rizzoli edition (2005), new Einaudi edition (2017).

New Einaudi edition, originally published by Rizzoli in 2005.

“No battles are lost as long as there are still books like those written by Melania Mazzucco.”
El País

“Melania Mazzucco writes with epical strenght and great levity, drowing facts and characters with care, irony and emotional involvement.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung

A woman tries to restart her life. A policeman is unable to accept the end of his marriage, obsessed by the memory of his wife, his children and his family. Their two kids are confused and sought after. A guy, age twenty, dreams a different world, and a senator, on the wane, the policeman works for as escort, is too busy to see that his family is falling apart as well. And all around Rome, from the suburbs to the centre of politic power, and work, school, dreams…the whole life in a day.
A choral novel to read in one swallow, a social fresco, ironic and pitiful, a group photo of a nation, a day that only apparently is like another in whatever big city. A total immersion in the reality around us.
This is a story of love and disenchantment, a first page crime news. But most of all, the anatomy of a family: girls and children, men and women, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters – scenes from a marriage in which we all, for better or for worse, can recognize ourselves.

Un giorno perfetto is a movie directed by Ferzan Özpetek in 2008.