Live Bait

The story of a little Tuscan town where fishing, biking, and rock ’n’ roll make the news, until tragedy turns everything upside down
 
Fiorenzo lives in Muglione, a provincial town in Tuscany, with his father, a trainer for the local cycling club who is determined to find a champion among his team of young athletes. Tiziana has returned to Muglione after studying abroad and is in charge of the local Youth Information Center, which functions mainly as a meeting place for a group of old men who like to play cards and drink wine. Enter Mirko, the incredible cycling protégée whom Fiorenzo’s father picked up by chance in the remote region of Molise. Mirko is a paradox: he is intelligent and naive, a great athlete but clumsy and helpless in everyday life, an idol of the local biking fans and a perfect target for the cruelty of his schoolmates. Fiorenzo, Tiziana, and Mirko meet by chance in this desolate and strange place, their fates interweaving in a story that is at once achingly funny, bitter, and full of poetic fervor.
 
Told with the tenderness of a Fellini film, this contemporary novel continues the great tradition of Italian literature and cinema.