The spellbinding literary true crime story of one of the most vicious crimes in recent Italian history. A journey into the darkest corners of Rome and of the human soul.

For fans of Truman Capote and Emmanuel Carrere

"Psychogeography at its most perceptive."—Financial Times

In March 2016, in an apartment on the outskirts of Rome, two “ordinary” young men brutally tortured and murdered twenty-two-year-old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves across Rome and beyond.

After the crime comes to light, Lagioia begins investigating the crime by meeting with the victim’s family and corresponding with one of the killers. It soon becomes clear, however, that to investigate this crime means to descend into the darkest corners of Rome and of the human psyche.

Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, economic grievances and identity crises to locate the breaking point, the point after which anything is possible.

Sharp, hypnotic, devastating, The City of The Living is not just the story of a crime, but of human nature itself: the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free, between who we are and who we can become.