Blame

All dictatorships are alike. But every democracy is a disgrace in its own way

In a multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Milan, the lives of vastly different inhabitants of a banister building intertwine: Mustafa Kamal earning money to begin a life with his promised bride in Egypt; Stefano, an Italian who has fallen in love with him; and Jasmine, a brilliant first generation Moroccan. ‘Outsiders’ living in an apparently quiet and ordinary street of a city which is actually on the razor’s edge. In a slow but inexorable crescendo of tension, the contradictions between cultures and sensibilities culminate in the mad, lucid organization of a bloody attack in the name of God.

Longlisted for the Strega Prize 2019