Claudia Petrucci on Sacredness, Genius Loci, and Her Novel 'Il cerchio perfetto'

Claudia Petrucci, born in Milan in 1990, now based in Perth, Australia, discusses her novel 'Il cerchio perfetto' (Sellerio, 2023) and her creative influences. She cites Stanislaw Lem, Primo Levi, Clarice Lispector, Ingeborg Bachmann, Gottfried Benn, Charlie Kaufman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Christopher Nolan, Henrik Ibsen, Luigi Pirandello, Shirley Jackson, Dino Buzzati, Giuseppe Tornatore, and Olivier Messiaen. The novel originated from a floor plan sketch of a house on Via Saterna that appears square outside but circular inside. Petrucci believes in Genius Loci as a distinctive spirit in writing. She sees the past as cyclically influencing the future, with nostalgia for the pre-2001 era. She advises young writers to take writing seriously, think originally, study, and maintain a non-writing day job for financial stability. Raised with a strict religious education, she considers the concept of the sacred intrinsic to human experience, beyond religion. She identifies AI, machine learning, sustainability, and mass migrations as key future trends.