The story of two distant lives that brush against each other once more in search of answers, relief, and salvation. Francesca Tramonti and Francesco Gilioli will discuss Palco vuoto (Golem) together with Eleonora Ercolani.

The Book:

Helene and Cesare. They met in a Milan high school classroom and fell in love during warm summers by Lake Garda. An intense, fleeting happiness, as often happens at twenty: different and separate lives awaited them.

She, now the wife of a well-known lawyer, has moved to Florence and writes crime novels. An orderly, happy, and fulfilling existence—until the Event forces her to rethink herself, to look at herself with empty eyes.

He, with an ex-wife, a teenage son, and a new love shipwrecked in recriminations and whims that consume him. He makes a living writing crime reports, but seeks in literature a redemption for his wounded soul.

Many years later, they find themselves once again seated at the same table, in a Florentine café-concert hall. Adults now, carrying the weight of their experiences, with spirits longing for rest and the promise to meet again.

The Authors:

Francesca Tramonti
Born in Florence, she graduated in Literature and Philosophy. She has edited school editions, magazines, and fiction for Le Monnier and Giunti. After a period in the United States, she returned to Italy, where she obtained a teaching position in Italian Literature at upper secondary school level. An tireless reader and lover of cinema and theatre, she later turned to writing: she published La danza della vita (2022) with Porto Seguro and L’idea dentro di me. Giacomo Matteotti per le giovani generazioni. Una proposta di didattica orientativa (2024) with Pacini Editore. Palco vuoto is her third work.

Francesco Gilioli
Originally from Veneto, he lives between Milan and Portogruaro. He is a professional journalist, videomaker, and contributor to Agence France-Presse. He has worked in radio (RTL, Erreuno), television (La7, Euronews), print media (La Stampa, La Nuova Venezia), and online for Repubblica. He writes for himself, in an attempt to bring order to all the irrational forces that overwhelm him. He published Di là dall’amore, tra gli alberi (2021) with NullaDie. Palco vuoto is his second novel.