The news made the rounds in the media and social media this summer, because it seemed so surreal – and romantic – to be true. Many, in fact, had thought of a publicity stunt: “thief enters an apartment in Rome, but is arrested because he stops to read a book found on the bedside table”. The book that caught the 38-year-old apartment mouse’s attention enough to ‘distract’ him from the theft is “The gods at six. The Iliad at aperitif time” by Giovanni Nucci for Bompianiwhich today – from the Small and Medium Publishing Fair ‘More books, more free’ in Rome – first of all reiterates that “it’s all true” and “advertising has nothing to do with it”. And then he reveals to Adnkronos that “the case significantly increased sales” as well as “attracting a lot of attention” and “having tried to contact the thief to meet him and give him the book.”
“The most surprising thing about this story – continues Nucci – is that everyone was amazed that a book could attract so much attentioneven a thief. It’s as if the world – he underlines – wanted such a romantic or poetic reading”. The book – he recalls – “is a writing essay on the Iliad, in which we focus on the current aspect of the Iliad and the myth , which has always been my strong point. In my opinion – claims the writer – this story appears much more romantic to us than it actually is, which says a lot: it’s as if we wanted to interrupt our life, which is a bit crude and doesn’t go as we would like, to stop and read a good book. Then when there is a thief involved – he adds – it’s as if the heads of government, the warmongers, the masters of war, as Bob Dylan said, stopped everything and started doing something else. We are in a world completely out of phase. We continue to do what they ask us to do even without wanting to – he continues – and we are thrilled by the fact that a thief takes the luxury of reading a book instead of stealing, to the point of getting arrested”.
As for the identity of the thief, Nucci explains: “while half the world told me it was a marketing gimmick, the other half told me ‘now you have to find him and give him the book, so he’ll know how it ends. ‘I therefore – he confesses – I tried to contact him through a lawyer friendbecause obviously the police cannot give this type of information. Unfortunately the outcome was negative, and I can’t say whether the thief had no desire to meet me. It seemed elegant to me to stop here”, says Nucci who will hold a meeting at ‘Più Libri Più Liberi’, on Sunday at noon, together with Paolo Di Paolo, to talk about poetry and present his collection of verses entitled “The soul in rimessa”, published by ‘L’altracittà’. “They are love poems. And today – he concludes – we really need poems, as well as love”.