Alessandro De Roma's Debut Novel Explores a Biographer's Obsession with a Fictional Literary Genius

Alessandro De Roma's first novel, "Vie et mort de Ludovico Lauter," published by Éditions Gallimard, follows a failed writer who decides to write the definitive biography of his idol, the hugely successful author Ludovico Lauter. The narrator, a mediocre scribe whose books are used to light fires, retreats to Sardinia after a friend questions his life's seriousness. He rents a house by the sea from Roberta, whose mother has cancer. The biography traces Lauter's origins: born in Cagliari in spring 1948, his mother Giulia experienced a vision of the martyr Restitua during a bombing, which instilled a lifelong mysticism. His German father Hermann, unable to forget the war, dies in a bizarre suicide. Giulia then moves with Ludovico to Rome, denying their Sardinian past, and later sends him to Wiesbaden to stay with his grandmother. In Rome, Ludovico begins writing, eventually studying in Bologna and later achieving fame in Milan with his "Cycle de l'étoile de mer" trilogy, a science-fiction success that causes fanaticism among readers. He marries Margaret in New York. The narrative also reveals the biographer's own dark secrets, blurring fiction and reality in a metafictional twist reminiscent of Stephen King and Hitchcock.