Hannibal and Scipio meet nine years after Zama. The tragic and moving epilogue to the gentle love that linked the aging Michelangelo to the poet Vittoria Colonna. A mysterious golden sword is the protagonist of a mystery steeped in archaeology and politics. A potter in ancient Athens is inadvertently responsible for the death of the great Alcibiades … In this book Valerio Massimo Manfredi engages with the short story form, and gives us twelve little jewels.
Set in ancient Greece or between the wars, in Renaissance courts or in a nuclear power plant just before 2000, these stories are an example of Manfredi’s extraordinary ability to make history relevant to the present. Ina addition. he also shows, whether dealing with famous poets or rough peasants, workers or famous leaders, how the human heart remains unchanged through the centuries, with its passions, its suffering and its greatness.