Out Now: Pazuzu: Effetto Nocebo – Italian Edition

My new novel is now available on Amazon and Kobo in its Italian edition, published by Delos Digital. This is the eBook edition, the print book is coming in a couple months. If you read Italian, you can either go ahead and buy it (which would make you extremely cool) or read on and discover shocking truths about it:

Pazuzu: Effetto Nocebo is co-authored by me and my wife (and, after Urlan and Poiesis, regular second writing head) Valentina Kay in unholy alliance with Italian horror legend Danilo Arona. This should be cool for you but it’s extra cool for me because I’ve always considered Danilo my master and his writings were a major inspiration for my work. He penned (many many years ago) the postface to my debut novel Melodia and a preface to Quintessenza; I’ve worked for years as his editor and he is, generally, an old-school gentleman and a wonderful person.

Pazuzu: Effetto Nocebo was sparked fifteen years ago, at a dinner when Danilo made a bone-chilling speech about the Nocebo Effect and the Hmong/Terranova incident, challenging the audience to write something about it.

Well, it took a while.

But it began even before that, actually, when Valentina gifted me a copy of a book with a chimerical demon on the cover which had caught her beautiful eye in a supermarket. The book was L’ombra del dio alato, it was about Pazuzu, and it made us discover Arona. And, well, put a lot of things in motion. We were barely more than kids back then and it’s strange to realize a book is coming out written by the three of us — puzzling together many years of shared memories and experiences.

That’s not all: an excellent author (and Sumerian demon authority) such as Edoardo Rosati has penned a beautiful preface which says stuff like There are stories which aren’t just read. They burrow under your skin like scabies. And devour your guts. And they keep living even after the last page has been turned. Nocebo is one of those.

Got it?

And of course — last but not least — many thanks to Franco Forte at Delos, who accompanied the book to publication.

And yeah, should you be wondering why it’s taking so long for Episode Two: Icebreaking, that’s part of why… but it is coming pretty soon, I swear. (And “pretty soon” is pretty subjective, don’t you ever forget.)