The Rules of Shangai

Original title: Le regole dello Shangai

Author: De Luca, Erri

Publication Date:

May 2023

Pages:

112

Original language and publisher

Italian | Feltrinelli

Territories Handled

Netherlands, Scandinavia, World English

Territories Sold

France (Gallimard)
Netherlands (Het Moet)

Genre

Literary Fiction

The Rules of Shangai

Original title: Le regole dello Shangai

Author: De Luca, Erri

Synopsis

She is a young gypsy woman escaping from her family to avoid an arranged marriage to an older man, he is a watchmaker who is camping on the border and welcomes her into his tent. The meeting inaugurates an understanding made up of nocturnal dialogues about men and life, an exchange of knowledge and visions – she who believes in destiny, in signs, in the god of things, she who trained a bear and loved him as the best of friends; he who feels himself to be a cog inside the machine of the world and that world interprets according to the rules Shanghai, as if playing were a way of bringing order to chaos. An understanding that will last a long time, even from afar, and will end up altering the existence of both of them: a gap in the game, a moving stick.