The Resurrector

The man who inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and whose experiments with electricity are still performed in biology classes today.

Through precise electrical stimulation applied to the limbs, it is possible to restore life to the dead; this is the conviction underpinning the Bolognese scientist’s research and the spectacular – albeit controversial – demonstrations he conducted in Italy and France on animal carcasses. Upon landing in a sordid London with access to fresh, unmutilated corpses, Giovanni Aldini throws himself headlong into his visionary project. Yet, his mad ambition and blind faith in progress will soon force him to confront the fears and moral dilemmas that have always lurked within the human heart.

Winner of the Mariano Romiti 2019 Prize