S.A.D. is a well-structured mix of different genres, from the coming-of-age story to the thriller, from the horror to the adventure novel, where the male characters keep moving from “local” places – like Montenero Hill – to Japan or legendary and exotic islands, until they develop an ascensional movement of the Ether, where a certain sureness about destiny unveils the arcane meaning of the story. The title has a double meaning – sad, which highlights the unhappiness of human beings on the Earth, and sureness about destiny, which is the certainty that we are all part of a broader picture that we are unaware of. Even though this is a debut novel, Paolo Salvini’s book is a page-turning novel that you won’t be able to stop reading, a story that penetrates the psyche of contemporary human beings, with all their daily fears and worries. / “On the skyscraper in front of the one where the People of the Stars had found refuge, a huge creature destroyed the last two floors, reared furiously and roared, making the still intact windows shake.”
DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO READ IT TO THE VERY LAST PAGE. ONCE YOU BEGIN IT… THERE WILL BE NO TIME TO REST A safe nest, from where defeated mankind has been banished. There lives the boy, in the bunker, since the seals that used to preserve mankind’s survival have been broken. He is a privileged boy, but everything is about to end, to collapse, perhaps forever. This is an apocalyptic novel, set in the distant future, where technology and monstrosity prevail; overshadowing each other, confining what is left of the human race in ever narrowing spaces, and making emotions burst into mighty manifestations of violence and power. T.I.M.E. is the last room of a wrecked castle on the edge of the abyss, it’s the last word before the end comes, the shiver that permeates those who recognise that destruction is before us, and that we have to fight to defeat it, even though it bewitches us. Mythological creatures that have inhabited the most ancient stories and legends of our culture, take here the shape of the darkest parts of humankind. In the book, we find bunkers, castles, citadels and imaginary planets, all in a fantasy novel that draws from the reality and casts incredible visions into a future with all the makings. Paolo Salvini, whose imagination and ability to surprise never fail, portraits Good and Evil, which contain passion, causes for reflection and creativity, catching the reader’s attention thanks to an incredibly fast-paced plot.