For more than four decades, Bruce Springsteen has enchanted millions around the world with his unique voice and unparalleled talent for storytelling, establishing him as one of the musical greats of all time. With this monumental work, Leonardo Colombati goes further in his judgment, demonstrating how the narrative power and expressive power of his songs place him squarely in the American literary tradition, along that fine line between Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck, Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver.

In Come un killer sotto il sole Colombati has collected and translated one hundred of Springsteen’s most significant songs, arranging them in not chronological but thematic order, in a montage that allows us to enjoy a true novel. Youth in New Jersey and the flight to a Promised Land in pursuit of that American Dream destined to collide with reality and shatter; the economic crisis, that new Great Depression that spanned the end of the last century and lasts to this day; and, again, maturity and reflection on success: as we read the lyrics – in original and in translation – one after the other, a wide-ranging narrative unfolds before our eyes, an epic in which the autobiographical cue always becomes universal

With the rigor and method reserved for the best literary criticism, Colombati analyzes and comments on each song, reconstructing the circumstances of its composition and the constant references to American culture. Filled with trivia and anecdotes, many revealed by Springsteen himself during interviews and concerts, the book also includes an up-to-date and highly detailed chronology and complete discography.

A passionate and rigorous survey that shines a new light on the work of one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Together with Born to Run, a must-have book for everyone who loves the Boss.