TYPORAMA
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May 19, 2026
Other Press Trade Paperback
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PRAISE FOR BROKEN TRUTHS:
"An aging director investigates a fresh murder while making a film about a decades-old cold case in this exquisite mystery from Italian novelist Robecchi (the Carlo Monterossi series)...Robecchi lends the core mysteries an elegant philosophical dimension via Parrini’s artistic musings, which widen the scope beyond the question of whodunit to consider questions about power, political corruption, and the nature of truth. This is a cut above most murder mysteries."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
"Acclaimed film director Manlio Parrini abandoned cinema following his masterpiece, “Broken Truths,” declaring the film industry “a place without truth.” Now over 70, he’s planning a comeback concerning crime novelist Augusto de Angelis, ruined by fascist censorship and brutally murdered in 1944, a case Parrini believes remains unsolved. Grotesquely, the widow in the adjoining villa is herself brutally murdered, strangled, just steps away. Reality, police investigations, publicity hounds and reporters become threaded through Parrini’s life as he insists on hewing to the truth of De Angelis’ murder and to the truth of his own cinematic vision. But further research discovers a witness at the site of De Angelis’ fatal beating, while the next-door murder becomes as complex and shrouded as that of the mystery author. Where is the truth?"—LAVENDER MAGAZINE
"[A]side from the decades-old mystery surrounding De Angelis' violent death, Broken Truths is also a contemporary murder mystery...[A]n enjoyable, easy-going read with lots of good elements -- and it adds up to a nice testament and tribute to the figure of De Angelis and his complex, compromising times."—COMPLETE REVIEW
“Robecchi has the natural gift of graceful irony. Some are born pianists, others as illustrators; he was born to make us discover, with a smile, the unexpected grotesque in situations, the ridiculousness of those who can only gaze at their own navel.”—IL VENERDÌ DI REPUBBLICA
“A riveting mystery packed with political and historical intrigue. Italy’s past and present are woven together in thrilling detail.”—Jo Piazza, author of The Sicilian Inheritance and Everyone Is Lying to You
An acclaimed director, Manlio Parrini, decides to return behind the camera. Having abandoned cinema at the height of his success because he found the industry to be “a place without truth,” he now, in his 70s, has a special story in mind: a film about Augusto De Angelis, a pioneer of Italian crime fiction in the 1930s. The violent death of De Angelis remains, for Parrini, an unsolved case marked by the stench of injustice and blind fascist censorship, a story that needs to be told now more than ever.
Yet just as Parrini finds a producer for his project and begins writing the screenplay with his friend and accomplice Sara De Viesti, another mystery bursts into his life: the murder of the elderly widow Bastoni, who owns the villa next door to his.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR:
Alessandro Robecchi is a former columnist for Il Manifesto and currently writes for Il Fatto Quotidiano and Tuttolibri of La Stampa. Robecchi is one of Italy’s most beloved crime authors, with his ten novels in the Carlo Monterossi series having sold more than 600,000 copies.
About the Translator: Gregory Conti has translated numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Italian including works by Emilio Lussu, Rosetta Loy, Elisa Biagini, and Paolo Rumiz. He is a regular contributor to the literary quarterly, Raritan.
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