Summer 1983, Rimini.
On the beaches and in the nightclubs of the Adriatic Riviera, dazzling with its neon lights and promised pleasures, seven lives intersect.
A young journalist on his first important assignment, determined to unravel a web of political corruption.
A woman searching for her runaway teenage sister – and a new life after the end of her marriage.
A gossip columnist who follows the dramatic unfolding of an international literary prize.
A lonely musician, seeking solace amidst the clubs and discos that throng Rimini’s beachfront strip.
A pair of penniless film directors who hatch a harebrained scheme to finance their dreams.
And the owner of a crumbling hotel, whose bad fortunes will drive him to desperate lengths.
An electrifying portrait of the simmering world of grifters, hedonists, dreamers and crooks who set the Italian Riviera of the 1980s alight, Rimini is a masterpiece of contemporary fiction, now translated into English for the first time.
On the beaches and in the nightclubs of the Adriatic Riviera, dazzling with its neon lights and promised pleasures, seven lives intersect.
A young journalist on his first important assignment, determined to unravel a web of political corruption.
A woman searching for her runaway teenage sister – and a new life after the end of her marriage.
A gossip columnist who follows the dramatic unfolding of an international literary prize.
A lonely musician, seeking solace amidst the clubs and discos that throng Rimini’s beachfront strip.
A pair of penniless film directors who hatch a harebrained scheme to finance their dreams.
And the owner of a crumbling hotel, whose bad fortunes will drive him to desperate lengths.
An electrifying portrait of the simmering world of grifters, hedonists, dreamers and crooks who set the Italian Riviera of the 1980s alight, Rimini is a masterpiece of contemporary fiction, now translated into English for the first time.
Reviews
A writer capable of capturing the pulse of an era . . . Glamorous discos, endless beaches, amusement parks and families on vacation, but also excesses, melancholy, sweet despair . . . The strength of the novel is there: in telling the story of a country that disguises itself as a Saturday night party to hide a deep well of anxiety
Tondelli sets out to subvert the canons of holiday literature . . . [Rimini is] the Great Adriatic Novel
Tondelli has made a welcome return to the queer canon
Tondelli's was a meticulous talent, precise and particular, his writing full of nicely observed detail and an almost microscopic view of everyday things and feelings
A singular voice . . . the author's lyricism and low-key humor successfully contend with the weight of an immense melancholy
In his meteoric career, Tondelli established himself as the most precise chronicler of 1980s provincial Italy and its atmosphere of widespread hedonism and extravagance. Rimini is an ensemble piece that captures what had only recently become Italy's big holiday destination as a merry-go-round of cheap thrills and fleeting summer romances
Tondelli shaped the sound of a generation . . . His books follow young men and women circling around specific subcultures in uncommon urban and rural spaces as they have sex and search for transcendence