The Performance

CLAUDIA PETRUCCI studied Modern Letters in Milan before moving to Perth, Australia. Her reportages and short stories-which range from realistic to experimental to science fiction-have been published on Cadillac, minima&moralia, and elsewhere. The Performance is her debut novel. It was shortlisted for the John Fante Award and won the prestigious Premio Flaiano Giovani, for writers under 30. It was also book of the day on Fahrenheit, an Italian radio program, and has so far been translated into German and French.

ANNE MILANO APPEL, based in California, has translated works by a number of leading Italian authors for a variety of publishers in the US and UK. Her most recent translations include works by the award-winning Antonio Scurati and Paolo Maurensig. Her awards include the Italian Prose in Translation Award, the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation, and the Northern California Book Award for Translation. Her website is: amilanoappel.com.

The story of a love triangle played out through mutual manipulation

Giorgia was a talented actress before she abandoned her stage career and fell in love with Filippo. She settles into a life of quiet compromise-until one day she bumps into her old theater director, Mauro, who fans the acting flame back to life. But setting a restless soul on fire can be dangerous if she loses sight of the boundary between reality and fiction-and Giorgia collapses, ending up in a clinic. Filippo and Mauro find themselves both accomplices and adversaries, seduced by a dangerous game to heal and win back Giorgia: by writing the script for her perfect life. In this dazzling debut, Petrucci explores the ambiguous borders between love, possession, and control in clear, magnetic prose.