The Fugitive by Massimo Carlotto

Source – Library .

Massimo Carlotto lived the story within this book ,he was involved with the terrorist group Lotta Contina he found a man stabbed in 1976 as a 19-year-old this lead to a life on the run and a huge case in Italy eventually he was pardoned in 1993 after an eventful 18 years of battles and running from the law .This is my first foray into Italian noir .

We catch the fiction Max in Mexico ,then we move back to see him first of after fleeing from the law and what would have been a lifetime Jail term ,he is in Paris he hangs out with the criminal and general underclass the people that we pass in large cities ,the under paid and petty thieves at this point is one of my favourite scenes in the whole book when he goes to a dentist due to agonizing pain ,he borrows a chilean medical card but whilst at the dentist is found out .

Listen ,doctor ,could you tell me something ? Would any dentist have noticed ?

No I worked in Chile for a couple of years ,

I started to laughing:

you mean to say that out of the hundred of dentists in Paris ,I ran into the only one that could cause me problems ?

He wa laughing too . that’s probably right .

so long doctor .

Max is treat by a dentist that finds out who he is but keep the secret .

A wonderful scene the book darkens as the main character decides to he’d off to Mexico as he been told it is a safe place but it turns out to be far from that and leads to a high climax .

I choose to get this after the bbc Italian Noir show remind me off it ,Massimo is the master of pace and tone ,you get shivers up the spine and have the constant sense of time ticking as Max runs from the law .It takes a long hard look at life on the run and how to deal with .The book was translated by Anthony Shugar and published by Europa Editions ,he has since wrote many novels a number of others available in english .

Have you read any Italian Noir ?