The Ada Fleres case, Nino Amadore’s noir that delves into the shadows of Italian history

The death of a woman, Ada Fleres, only apparently random and natural; a restless and stubborn inspector at least as much as the victim, Luca Bianchi: the ingredients for a noir are all there. It could be enough to write a novel, a detective story. One of many. Instead, no. It’s not enough.

Why “The Ada Fleres case” (Laurana Editore Milano) by Nino Amadore, journalist who for Il Sole 24 Ore it tells Sicily in its different facets, it cannot be confined to crime fiction production. Among the folds of this novel there are all the shadows, the unknown, the reticence, the muddy swamps of Italian history.

Palermo as protagonist and the search for truth

There is, above all, a city that is not like all the others: Palermo. Visible and occult protagonist who occupies all the pages, with his blinding light he is able to burn the wings of “a lark that flew too close to the sun”. “Palermo, in July, doesn’t give discounts to anyone. You never get used to that heat, and its colors: every summer seems more ferocious than the previous one and, every year, the people of Palermo say it as if it were the first time”, reflects inspector Luca Bianchi before finding the body of Ada Fleres.

Librarian by day, Ada loves the profession of journalist, to which she dedicates the rest of the day: “One of those who stick their noses where others have no desire, or interest, to pry”. The inspector will follow the traces left by Ada, her investigation, without losing sight of the general picture: “It was the same principle that he had seen at work during the investigation: not blatant illegality, but that which settles slowly, until it becomes a landscape… It is not a system that someone has built on a table. It is something that has built itself, one piece at a time, because each piece was useful to someone. Ada had understood this. She was not looking at the single episode, but at the trajectory. the abuse, but the sum. And that was why it had become dangerous.” And it was up to Inspector Luca Bianchi not to let her “fall into silence”.

The “landscape” of impunity and the lesson of memory

In this novel there is all of Amadore’s profession, his journalistic investigations and the daily news from the city. But more than others there are “fragile” data, evanescent, which cannot fit into any objective context. And it is precisely the latter that have a decisive weight, because they build a subtle, impalpable system that cannot be pigeonholed into any type of crime. Until it becomes impunity. Even if they favor it, they fuel it. They become, to quote the author, “landscape”. And like all landscapes, they know how to mutate, adapt to changes, to new geography – natural and urban – to the point of becoming transparent. You simply get used to this scenario that changes so slowly until the metamorphosis is imperceptible to the distracted eye.

There is an echo of Paolo Borsellino’s stony words: “The fight against the mafia must first and foremost be a cultural movement that accustoms everyone to smelling the beauty of the fresh scent of freedom which is opposed to the stench of moral compromise, indifference, contiguity and therefore complicity”. Or Impastato’s radio waves: “We must rebel. Before it’s too late. Before we get used to their faces! Before we no longer notice anything”, which here are not just slogans good for the squares: they are investigative methods, they are swallowed bitterness that sometimes push us to the ground, but leaving us with a residue of forces that are released between the pages, in the ethics and morals of the novelist and journalist Amadore. Straight and free, from mind to pen.

Beyond the news: the power of narrative

But why does a journalist who has told and continues to tell the opaque news of a city and a region, Sicily, feel the need to write a noir? His rough investigations were already not enough The gray area to highlight all the invisible clichés of a proven system?

The truth can be told in many ways, from angles that are not always predictable or stereotyped. Fiction, when it is well anchored to reality, with a highly refined psychological observation capacity of the characters who move within a book – as in this novel – manages to overcome the limit required by investigative journalism: breaths and silences. The light that creates shadows. The words spoken and the words left unsaid. The kind gestures and the violence of a hand that slowly puts down a cup of coffee. Because there is never just one way to tell. And not even looking.