A novel where the melancholy of constantly leaving behind things and people, in time and space, dominates. But also the thoughtlessness of setting out to find them. Or to be found.
Vince Corso, bibliotherapist and literary puzzle detective, on the train that is supposed to take him to a date with his fiancée runs into an original traveling companion: an educated, insinuating man who physically reminds him of the great Léo Ferré, the anarchic chansonnier of Avec le temps. Only Corso has taken the wrong direction-he was supposed to go south instead of north-and contrite he would like to ripa-rare. But the man, mysteriously allusive, urges him to persist in the mistake: “perhaps you don’t know it yet, but it may be time to make this journey.” Genoa, the first destination, will give him a tug at his heartstrings: from there to Marseilles his very early childhood had been spent. His waitress mother had conceived him with a stranger one night in late July 1969. And this was to be the most important investigation of his life: to find out who his father was. For five years Vince Corso has sent him a postcard a day, leaving the recipient’s name blank and addressing them to the only place he knew his father had passed through at least for one night: the Hotel Le Negresco in Nice. Her search will take place on the shores of the Côte d’Azur, among poor boarding houses and Art Nouveau hotels, behind poets’ verses and old characters laden with lived stories, following the indecipherable mosaic of individual destinies and coincidences. Until the recognition that completes the circle: being returned from books to life, getting back the chance to “love without measure.” French Nocturne is actually a nocturne full of light. It is a story of mistakes, of dates you don’t know you have, of labyrinths and orphans searching for a harbor. A novel where the melancholy of constantly leaving behind things and people, in time and space, dominates. But also the recklessness of setting out to find them. Or to be found.
Fabio Stassi was born in Rome in 1962. He is a librarian at La Sapienza University. He has published for Minimum fax È finito il nostro carnevale (2007), La rivincita di Capablanca (2008), Il libro dei personaggi letterari. Dal dopoguerra a oggi (2015) and Con in bocca il sapore del mondo (2018).
With Sellerio he has published: L’ultimo ballo di Charlot, translated into nineteen languages (2012, Premio Selezione Campiello 2013, Premio Sciascia Racalmare, Premio Caffè Corretto Città di Cave, Premio Alassio Centolibri), Come un respiro interrotto (2014), a contribution to the anthology Articolo 1. Racconti sul lavoro (2009), Fumisteria (2015, formerly Premio Vittorini for best debut) Angelica e le comete (2017), Mastro Geppetto (2021, Premio Dessì 2022, Premio Benedetto Croce 2022, Premio Stresa 2022) and the “discourse” on the therapeutic power of Dante's verses E d’ogni male mi guarisce un bel verso (2023); and also the novels starring bibliotherapist Vince Corso, La lettrice scomparsa (2016, Premio Scerbanenco), Ogni coincidenza ha un’anima (2018), Uccido chi voglio (2020), Notturno francese (2023). He also edited the Italian edition of Curarsi con i libri. Rimedi letterari per ogni malanno (2013, 2016) and Crescere con i libri. Rimedi letterari per mantenere i bambini sani, saggi e felici (2017).
Nel 2024 riceve l’Hermann-Kesten Preis da PEN Germania, in omaggio a quello che lo scrittore iracheno Najem Wali ha definito “il carattere cosmopolita e umanista dell’autore”.
Il suo ultimo libro è Bebelplatz (Sellerio 2024).