My Shadow Is Yours

A recent college graduate accompanies a reclusive middle-aged writer on a chaotic road trip to Milan in this hilarious, heartwarming novel about love, friendship, and the pitfalls of nostalgia

In 1995 Vittorio Vezzosi rose to worldwide acclaim with his debut novel, The Wolves Inside. Unfortunately for his adoring fans—and his publisher—he wouldn’t write another word. Instead, the great author shut himself away in a farmhouse overlooking Florence.

After twenty-five years of silence, however, a corporate takeover lights the fire under Vittorio to produce a new novel, and bright young classics graduate Emiliano De Vito is hired to assist him. Off to a rocky start, the odd couple embark on a madcap journey in a 1979 Jeep—without a roof or windshield or doors—to Milan, where Vittorio will speak to a crowd of thousands.

As they travel across Italy, bonding over wine and women, and butting heads over the struggles Emiliano’s generation inherited from Vittorio’s, the two begin to see the world, and writing, in a different way.

Edoardo Nesi is a writer, filmmaker, and translator. He began his career translating the work of such authors as Bruce Chatwin, Malcolm Lowry, Stephen King, and Quentin Tarantino. He has written six novels, one of which, L’età dell’oro, was a finalist for the 2005 Strega Prize and a winner of the Bruno Cavallini Prize. He wrote and directed the film Fughe da fermo, based on his novel of the same name, and has translated David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest into Italian.

Gregory Conti has translated numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Italian including works by Emilio Lussu, Rosetta Loy, Elisa Biagini, and Paolo Rumiz. He is a regular contributor to the literary quarterly, Raritan.