• 2 Seas Represents: Dutch rights
• Long English synopsis available

NOVEL | HISTORICAL FICTION

An intense and poignant novel about love, betrayal and broken ideals at the time of war.

Based on historical events, Remember the Colour of the Night tells the story of character who really existed.

1941. Svevo Giacco-Aliprandi, the Italian consul at Algeciras, is an exemplary man. The scar across his face proofs his loyalty to fascist ideology as well as his will to defend his ideas. His presence in Gibraltar, the stronghold allowing the UK to rule the Mediterranean, is connected to a top secret mission aimed at striking British military targets; a fearless action which could change the course of the war.

Svevo’s life is all about work, family and the Fatherland, until the day he meets Yvonne Lavallard, a restless photographer at Reuters who is fleeing from Nazi-occupied Paris. She is a charming woman with a shady past, who has nothing to lose.

On the Allied side, however, there is a man who figured out the Italians’ plan – Arthur Goodwin, the head of the SIS at Gibraltar. Just like Svevo, Arthur has a weak spot: a French woman who is asking for access to The Rock in order to photograph it. Her name is Yvonne Lavallard. Two men on opposite sides, two fighters used to winning every battle, ready to lose everything for the fist time.

Mattia Bernardo Bagnoli was born in Milan in 1980 and graduated in literature and history from the University of Bologna. He attended the International Journalism MA at City University in London, where he has been correspondent for Ansa and other newspapers, including La stampa and D- la Repubblica. After working briefly as political correspondent for Ansa in Rome, since 2015 he is Editor-in-Chief of Ansa in Moscow. He writes on Russian affairs for pagina99, D – la Repubblica, HuffPost. He authored the roman noir Bologna permettendo (Fazi, 2009), the guide Strano ma Londra (Fazi, 2012) and the novelistic inquiry Nerogolfo (Frilli, 2018).