THE USURPERS, PUBLISHED 2021

11 September 2001. World Trade Centre. 8:29 am, North Tower: Tom, who has become a trader to fulfill his obligations as a father-to-be, learns that the child to come is not his. 8:46 am, South Tower: a Boeing crashes under the floor where Alcina, Tom’s wife, is having breakfast.

A banal meeting of small and big history? Or an overlooked episode of an ancestral vendetta?

From the crisis-ridden United States to the Australia of surfers, from the Tuscany of the Medici to the Yugoslavia of Tito, a name comes back: Francesca Caccini, musician adored in her time but then forgotten. Except by the one who became obsessed with her… to the point of murderous madness.

PROLOGUE

Her throat is so tight… It hurts. Terror has become a physical entity which is crushing the young woman’s larynx, trachea, and oesophagus, paralysing even her vocal cords.

How ironic.

Le corde vocali, la più bella al mondo, her mother used to tell her. And with those words suddenly coming from her childhood… absence, deprivation.

Despair.

Musica a una, e due voci. Repeat after me, mio tesoro. Musica…

Tears come to her eyes. She closes them. What’s the point of thinking about this now? E la fine del mondo, la fine dell'universo. She’s not in a children’s song anymore. Death is coming. Really. How much time has she left? A few minutes? An hour? Very little at least in view of past centuries, of the sacrifices made.

Of the crimes committed.

She clenches her fingers on the medallion at the base of her neck. A bitter smile comes to her lips. Finally. . .

She will be the victim.