The historical novel by Giovanni Grasso, published by Rizzoli, comes out on 7 September. It recalls the aviator who, having left France, threw 400,000 leaflets against fascism on Rome
On the evening of October 3, 1931, a small German-made monoplane, which left in the afternoon from an airport near Marseille, violated the sky of Rome. For a good twenty minutes unloaded undisturbed on the streets and squares of the center – including Palazzo Chigi and Palazzo Venezia – his precious cargo: four hundred thousand leaflets that urged the Italians and the king with firm and strong words to free themselves from the yoke of the fascist dictatorship, in the name of civilization and freedom. On board that aircraft there was a young and inexperienced pilot (if not he had ten hours of flight to his credit). His name was Lauro de Bosis and by profession he was a poet. He was just 31 years old. And at the age of 27 he had composed a poem, winner of the silver medal at the Amsterdam Olympics, with the prophetic title: Icarus. AND Icarus, the flight over Rome also the title of the essay by Giovanni Grasso that Rizzoli sends to bookstores on Tuesday 7 September.
De Bosis paid his daring gesture with his life – defined by Gaetano Salvemini (with Don Sturzo the tutelary deity of the young rebel) a formidable moral blow to fascism, precisely because he mocked the much-vaunted Duce’s air force and the regime’s secret services. After the feat, in fact, his plane sank in the Tyrrhenian Sea, probably running out of fuel. The aircraft and the pilot’s body were never found. But Lauro, who loved life, had taken his sacrifice into account.
Shortly before leaving he had given Francesco Luigi Ferrari (Catholic anti-fascist, also linked to Don Sturzo) a manuscript, significantly entitled Story of my death. In those pages de Bosis wrote: We will go to bring a message of freedom to a people enslaved by the sea … Let’s go to Rome to spread those words of freedom in the sky that for the past seven years have been prohibited as crimes; and with reason, since if they were allowed they would shake the fascist tyranny in a few hours.
On the ninetieth anniversary of the heroic flight, Giovanni Grasso – fresh from the good reception of his first novel, The Kaufmann case – returns to remove the dust of time on forgotten or little known historical events, reviving not only the luminous figure of Lauro de Bosis, but also the effervescent political and artistic world that moved around his figure. If, in fact, few remember his heroic (and anything but desperate) deed, even fewer know that the young anti-fascist was romantically linked to the most important American theater actress of the time, Ruth Draper (aged 17 years older). An unattainable artist (Henry James wrote some monologues for her), contested by the stages of the whole world, and a courageous woman, who agreed to share, until the last day, the risky battle of the only man of her life.
In the lively pages of Giovanni Grasso, the political adventure and the Time.news of the preparation of de Bosis’s extraordinary enterprise against the fascist regime unfold through the fascinating description of the intellectual circles of the late 1920s: the dark Rome, bigoted and afraid of fascism, the exuberant New York of the theaters, of sound cinema and jazz, the sparkling Paris of Cocteau, Josphine Baker and Simenon, but also the difficult and tormented universe of Italian exiles, populated by the likes of Sturzo, Salvemini, Turati, Nitti, Rosselli and infiltrated by spies, traitors and double agents. And, last but not least, the extraordinary world of the pioneers of flight, made up of daring captains, veterans of the Great War and drunken instructors.
The author alternates and blends authentic data, the result of twenty-year extensive research, and literary fiction, giving life to a historical novel, in the true sense of the term, which is capable of telling a beautiful story of freedom and love, returning to the two protagonists, Lauro and Ruth, the place of honor that belongs to them in the pantheon of Italian anti-fascism. And, at the same time, to communicate atmospheres, passions, feelings, ferments of an unrepeatable political and cultural season, destined to pave the way for one of the darkest periods in the history of humanity. A danger of very serious involution, which Lauro de Bosis had foreseen and denounced with clarity and courage. But that his insane flight of Icarus over Rome could not prevent.
The author and the book
The historical novel by Giovanni Grasso is released on Tuesday 7 September in bookstores Icarus, the flight over Rome, published by Rizzoli (pages 384, euro 19). The book reconstructs the story of Lauro de Bosis who, who flew from France, threw 400,000 leaflets against the fascist regime over Rome. De Bosis’s undertaking, which then fell into the sea without his or the plane ever being found, took place ninety years ago, on October 3, 1931. Born in Rome in 1962, Giovanni Grasso is currently a director for the press and communications. of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. Grasso author of biographies of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Piersanti Mattarella, he has made documentaries for Rai. In 2019 he published his first novel, The Kaufmann case (Rizzoli), winner of numerous awards
September 6, 2021 (change September 6, 2021 | 21:18)
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