
Like everyone else in the free world, on 6 January 2021 Anthony Sanfilippo is glued to the television news: in Washington, after an inflammatory rally by Trump aimed at overturning the presidential election results, thousands of protesters stormed the Capitol, the heart and symbol of American democracy. But for Tony, a retired librarian and archivist, the surprises are not over: a few days later, he learns that his brother-in-law has been arrested for taking part in the insurrection, marching alongside the rebels with a QAnon flag. And although he does not share his beliefs, he agrees to help him. After the events of 6 January, New Orion – a company that can analogically associate images, sounds and memories in time and space – plastered New York with job advertisements. Many people have requested its services: clients want to know if the end of the world is coming, if there will be a stock market crash, if American madness will spread to Europe, if Trump will be arrested or if he will return to power... The company needs staff, so Tony jumps on the bandwagon: a job like that could help him investigate his brother-in-law's motives, and in any case, he doesn't mind the idea of putting himself out there. Thus begins a journey into the heart of America and the entire world, guided by the synapses and databases of New Orion: the Italian-American librarian goes in search of historical cycles and recurrences and all those unexpected and surprising analogies that could reveal the hidden forces that led to the assault on the Capitol. Starting from a series of disturbing correspondences – from the mysterious murders in Twin Peaks to the myth of Lenin and Trotsky's October Revolution, from the QAnon Shaman, in whom the preachers of the South seem to be reincarnated, to the replicants of Blade Runner, from Francis' premonitions of a new 1933 to Arnold Schwarzenegger's predictions of a new Kristallnacht – Tony retraces the fateful 6 January 2021 in search of the truth, until he finds it in George Floyd, who from the street in Minneapolis where he was killed is becoming the founding myth of a new America and the return to democracy. Four years later, history seems to be repeating itself, but this time following the rules of democracy: in January 2025, Trump returns to power, and once again Sanfilippo and New Orion find themselves investigating the hidden motivations that made possible what many, mistakenly, considered impossible: from the similarities between Hitler and Trump to the latter's relationship with the richest man in the world – Elon Musk – from Corleonesque politics elected as the new creed of the 21st century to the unexpected relevance of Greenland, from the shadows of McCarthyism to the new golden age promised by the tycoon through tariffs... With originality, courage and precision, in an expanded and revised edition of “Cose che voi umani” (2021), Enrico Deaglio returns to draw the reader into the shadows and mysteries of the United States, digging down to the roots of a present that has already become history.
Enrico Deaglio was born in Turin, Italy in 1947.
He has lived in San Francisco since 2012. He has worked in print media and television.
He has dealt with the Mafia for 40 years; in 2021 he was a consultant to the Anti-Mafia Commission of the Region of Sicily on the Borsellino murder cover-up, headed by Claudio Fava. Among his investigative books on our recent history, the longest-running is La banalità del bene - Storia di Giorgio Perlasca (Feltrinelli, 1991). He has told mafia stories with Il figlio della professoressa Colomba (Sellerio, 1992), Raccolto rosso (Feltrinelli, 1993), Il vile agguato (Feltrinelli, 2012), Indagine sul Ventennio (Feltrinelli, 2014) and the trilogy of Patria. La bomba. Cinquant'anni di Piazza Fontana (Feltrinelli). In 2020 won the Bagutta prize.
In 2023 he published for Feltrinelli C’era una volta in Italia. Gli anni sessanta, which was followed by C’era una volta in Italia. Gli anni settanta (Feltrinelli, 2024) and C’era una volta in Italia. Gli anni ottanta (Feltrinelli, 2025).