After an afternoon of surfing, television executive Pietro Paladini and his brother Carlo spot two women struggling far off in the waves. Pietro and Carlo race to save them, and after fighting the currents and exhaustion, bring them safely to shore. Now late to get home, Pietro hurries up from the beach only to find his young daughter, Claudia, wide-eyed at the side of the road. His wife has unexpectedly died while he was saving the life of another. After numbly feeling their way through the rituals of death and the end of summer, the school year begins. On that first day, Pietro decides to wait for Claudia and work from his car in the parking lot outside her school; he is also waiting for the full force of grief to press down on their shoulders, to suffocate them. What if today is the day that happens?What if Claudia needs him? On the second day, Pietro again waits for his daughter ...and the third, and the fourth. He finds some semblance of peace in waiting, and strangely others find something similar in him: his colleagues, friends and family begin to visit him at the parking lot to share their problems. It's there that the woman he saved finds him, stirring in him a distracting, overbearing lust that stands in the way of his grief. Through their angry, unforgiving union, Pietro's days outside the school reach their culmination, and his loss is finally transformed into acceptance. At turns funny and dark, unexpectedly compelling and powerfully real, "Quiet Chaos" takes readers into the odd, beautiful moments of the everyday that offer opportunity for contemplation, and ultimately, renewal.

About the Author
Sandro Veronesi was born in Prato, Italy, in 1959. The Force of the Past, is his first to be published in America. He lives in Rome, Italy.

Reviews
"Mr. Veronesi sustains the opening scene's excitement as he stirs a psychological ferment...The overpowering sense of fragility that touches Pietro and Claudia is superbly conveyed by translator Michael F. Moore. Let's hope more novels from Mr. Veronesi's back catalog join 'Quiet Chaos' in translation." -- Wall Street Journal "Dazzling... Like a literary Fellini, Veronesi brings to life the larger-than-life human comedy as only an Italian would dare, uproariously funny in the face of stark tragedy. It's a reading experience not to be missed." -- Shelf Awareness "[An] absorbing second novel." -- Publishers Weekly



Book Information
ISBN 9780061572944
Author Sandro Veronesi
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint ECCO Press
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Weight(grams) 345g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 135mm * 25mm