THE DARKEST WINTER
L’inverno più nero
Monday, April 13, 2026 | 18:30 PM
Club Fugazi Experiences, 678 Green St, San Francisco, CA 94133
On the occasion of La Piazza – San Francisco Italian Literary Festival, the Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco, in collaboration with the cultural association Librai in corso, presents:
The Darkest Winter
(L’inverno più nero)
Orenda Books, 2025
by Carlo Lucarelli
An event hosted at the Club Fugazi, featuring author Carlo Lucarelli, in conversation with Mauro Aprile Zanetti.
Presentation in Italian with English translation
Event open to the public | Registration required
In Nazi-occupied Italy during the final winter of World War II, investigator De Luca is forced to solve a brutal murder under impossible pressure. The Germans threaten to execute ten hostages unless the killer is found quickly, pushing De Luca into a race against time through a city filled with fear, political tension, and shifting loyalties. As he follows the trail of violence, he must navigate corruption, danger, and the moral compromises of life under a collapsing regime.
CARLO LUCARELLI
Carlo Lucarelli (Parma, 1960) is the author of novels, essays, and screenplays. Among his books published by Einaudi, Almost Blue (1997), Un giorno dopo l’altro (2000), Guernica (2000), Nuovi misteri d’Italia (2004), La mattanza (2004), Piazza Fontana (2007), L’ottava vibrazione (2008), L’ispettore Coliandro (2009), I veleni del crimine (2010), L’ispettore Grazia Negro (2013), Albergo Italia (2014), Carta bianca (2014), Il tempo delle iene (2015), L’estate torbida (2017), Peccato mortale (2018), Navi a perdere (2018), L’inverno piú nero (2020), Via delle Oche (2021), Léon (2021), Autosole (2022), Almeno tu (2025) and Nei luoghi piú oscuri (2025). He has hosted television programs about crimes and mysteries for many years. His books are translated into several languages and have been adapted into films and TV series, including the cycle dedicated to Commissioner De Luca and the series L’ispettore Coliandro.
MAURO APRILE ZANETTI
Mauro Aprile Zanetti (MAZ) is a cultural strategist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, working at the intersection of culture, philanthropy, and technology. He serves as Global Brand and Philanthropy Strategist for the Manetti Shrem Foundation and Chief Business Evangelist at Cloud4Wi. An interdisciplinary author, MAZ has written on figures such as Federico Fellini, Giorgio Morandi, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. His works include La Natura Morta de La Dolce Vita—A Mysterious Morandi in the Matrix of Fellini’s Vision (2008) and The Joy, Carnations and Siesta (2003). The last collaborator of Ferlinghetti on Little Boy(Doubleday, 2019), MAZ is active in California’s cultural landscape and serves as a liaison for Italy’s cultural institutions in the United States while leading international programs at the Manetti Shrem Foundation.
Ph. credits: Francesca Cassaro