“Where the river dies”, the novel on the road in the Po Valley by Giovanni Battista Menzani

Two friends without art or role who suddenly find themselves in command of a troop of kids discovering a new feeling of freedom. A kidnapping, or something that was supposed to be a kidnapping, which turns into a novel on the road in the Po Valley, between tragicomic adventures and poetic pages in modern-day Italy, a disillusioned and embittered country.
Where the river dies, the book by Giovanni Battista Menzani just published by Laurana Editore, is a little jewel like many that this Milanese publishing house – directed by a passionate Sicilian from Racalmuto, the town of reason (and Sciascia) – has intercepted and offered to the most of fine palate. A picaresque novel, like the leader of the titles published in recent times by Laurana, that Mexican Railways by Gian Marco Griffi capable of arriving in the dozen at the Strega after having won all the possible and imaginable prizes, from the Masterclass to Fahrenheit.
Ivan and Mattia are a couple of friends who have found a particular way to supplement their meager income: they organize fake protest marches which are easily dispersed, without anyone getting hurt. In this way, the police forces ingratiate themselves with the Minister of the Interior and the two collect some money under the table to survive. One day, however, the irreparable happens: the protesters they enlisted get carried away. The damages amount to two hundred thousand euros, and someone will also have to pay them back.
Ivan, who in life works as an on-call janitor, proposes the grand kidnapping of Sebastiano, a disabled boy son of a rich family in the area. As? Easy: just take possession of the school bus. Of course, things go differently. For once, the minibus changes route, and Ivan and Mattia find themselves in command of a ragtag group of kids, who paradoxically savor an unknown sensation of freedom.
Thus, therefore, begins a ramshackle, grandiose and heroic road escape along the Po river. Where the river dies is a long and light dissertation on friendship and purity which confirms the talent of Giovanni Battista Menzani, a 55-year-old from Piacenza years, in his life as an architect who made his literary debut in 2013 with the collection of short stories The smell of burning plasticwhich was followed in 2018 by Cimported as a man (both for LiberAria). In 2017 you published the long story for Papero Editore The concrete field. He is responsible for the book area of the social cooperative Officine Gutenberg and editorial director of the brand [LOW].