Time on My Hands A Novel

Time on My Handsunfolds during the annus horribilis of 1978, when Italy was transfixed by leftist acts of terrorism. The Christian Democrat leader, Aldo Moro, has been kidnapped in Rome by members of the Red Brigades, and the nation is in a state of anxiety as he lies blindfolded in an undisclosed "people's prison." Two months after his disappearance, Moro is found dead in the trunk of a car parked midway between the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party and the Christian Democrat Party in Rome. In the Sicilian capital of Palermo, a trio of eleven-year-old schoolboys, self-named Halo, Ray, and Flight, avidly follow news of Moro's abduction as it percolates down to them from Rome. To their preadolescent minds, the brigatisti are pure warrior figures striking a blow at Italian conformity and propriety. The boys shave their heads, develop a secret langauge, and begin a life of escalating criminal behavior. With news of Moro's death, the friends kidnap a classmate and slowly suffocate him after a week of detention and silent torture. Eventually Flight, the ruthless leader of the group, decides that Halo must kidnap a mute Creole girl he is secretly in love with. Meticulous and desperate, introverted and precocious, Halo records and questions everything, leading the reader down the path of his tragic transformation.

Giorgio Vasta was born in Palermo in 1970 and currently lives in Turin. In Italy, Time on My Hands was selected for the Premio Strega 2009 and was a finalist for the Prix Dessì, the Premio Berto, and the Dedalus Award. Vasta has edited several anthologies and writes for the literary blog Minima et Moralia.