20th of July 2022: in a two-room apartment on the outskirts of Milan, at the end of a small deadend street, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl is found dead, abandoned for six days by her mother on holiday with her partner.
It is the Pifferi case, which will explode all over the Italian media, enthralling and dividing public opinion. This book thoroughly investigates its background, protagonists, places, feelings and implications by building a plot that start from afar and come to the present, taking the reader by the hand through a tragic story that goes beyond the news and intertwines with psychology, psychiatry, sociology, sexuality. It questions the limits of justice in the face of the abyss and mystery of the human condition. Exploring contexts and stereotypes that are not just about the Pifferi case, but tells much about our current society. In January, the appeal trial of Alessia Pifferi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment at first instance, opened.
“An admirably reconstructed geography of abandonment. A brave excavation into the evil that lives next door. Gilioli wrests a story that no one should forget from the clamour of the news, and delivers it to the depths of authentic journalism. Carefully handling the fragility of our times, the paradoxes of family ties and the sacredness of childhood, he calls us all to build a better society, where no Diana can be left alone. Never again”.
Silvia Avallone
Alessandro Gilioli (Milan 1962), journalist, was among
other things deputy editor of L’Espresso and director of
Radio Popolare. Among his books Cattivi capi cattivi colleghi
(Mondadori), Stress economy (Mondadori), Premiata
macelleria delle Indie (Rizzoli), I nemici della Rete (Rizzoli).
Pub date: January 2025
Length: 208 pp