Entering the world of the depressed, middle-aged lawyer Guido Guerrieri, we follow him through the law courts, bars, and beaches of Bari as he falls to the bottom of an emotional well, and join him as he slowly climbs out.
Ironically, it is the body of a child found down a real well that galvanizes Guerrieri. In a mysterious sequence of events, he is returned to life and purpose when he finds himself defending a Senegalese immigrant who is about to be convicted of the child's murder on the basis of wildly circumstantial evidence.
Through Guido's memories and reflections, the reader sees the numbing people he used to hang out with. Among this set, marriages of convenience, drinking, partying and meaningless affairs are commonplace. Some lawyers get paid in cash, give no receipts, declare improbably low incomes, and accept money they know has ties to organized crime. When Guido visits his client in prison, he is repelled by the routine unproven "violence committed on the prisoners to improve discipline."
After one successful court defence, we see Guido attacked on the street by thugs who disapprove. An amateur boxer, he's able to beat back the gangsters, only to have his tires slashed and his car damaged. To stop this escalating, he must work through a shady intermediary who visits Guido's attackers and returns with the message that if he does not report the damage to his car, but pays for it himself, the feud will end.
Though this novel is more noir than cosy, the narrator can be funny. Indeed, he places great value on a sense of humour, in particular, the ability to laugh at oneself. And speaking of noir, I haven't dyed the black-and-white cover red for effect. At this season, I mostly read outside; the colour is the result of the way our patio umbrella filters light.
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