It's election time again in our small town that could be anywhere but is in fact among the dying olive groves of Puglia. Everything is about to kick off. Lines are being drawn, 'us' and 'them' are taking their positions, and alliances are being made in the shake of a hand, the wink of an eye or over the chink of an espresso cup in the bar on the piazza. The 'hopliticians' are massing in their phalanxes once again.

This scorching political satire by one of Italy's most thrilling new writers is a choral novel that follows the personal and public vicissitudes of a cast of wannabe politicos and absurd party factions, as they scrabble for power with the lesson of that great Italian masterpiece The Leopard apparently foremost in their minds: for things to remain the same – for power to stay in place – everything must change.



Antonio Galetta was born in Ceglie Messapica, Puglia in 1998. He studied Italian literature and is currently undertaking doctoral research on the contemporary novel. His work explores power, politics and collective behaviour, through formally innovative narrative voices rooted in southern Italian settings.

Antonella Lettieri is London-based translator working into English and Italian and collaborates regularly with Foundry Editions. In 2026 Antonella won the TA First Translation Prize from the Society of Authors for her translation of Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone. Antonella also translated *The Duke*, longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.



A finely crafted portrait of contemporary Italy in miniature, which for all its darkness, ultimately reads as a kind of prayer."



"Galetta displays striking maturity and sharpness of vision, alongside a reluctant affinity for a people who are as small-minded as they are lost."



"Passions, ideals, betrayals where individual interest prevails over genuine feelings and the common good."