Qfifteen novels and over a million copies sold in Italy alone, plus translations in various languages. Alessia Gazzola, 40, from Messina transplanted to Verona, is a true champion of writing. After the debut in 2011 with the first book of the successful Alice Allevi series, which also had a successful television transposition, Gazzola has continued to reap success after another.
Alessia Gazzola worked as a medical examiner before devoting herself full time to writing. You have achieved success with the Alice Allevi series. Her new protagonist is a paleopathologist.
Alessia Gazzola, La Costanza is an exception
So much so that a few years ago he left his profession as a medical examiner to devote himself full time to his novels and his little girls, Eloisa and Bianca, 9 and 7 years old. Fresh off the press, it has reached the bookstore Constance is an exception, third volume of the saga starring the paleopathologist Costanza Macallèthis time dealing with a high-ranking Venetian family, the Almazàn, on which in the seventeenth century hovered the suspected of vampirism. Now the last descendant of the Almazàn wishes to uncover the graves of his ancestors to find out what is true in the slanderous rumors. A dark story that tickles the curiosity of Costanza who, at the same time, has to juggle a new job, her daughter Flora and the complicated relationship with Marco, the child’s father who could also be involved in the operation … The author skillfully plays with temporal planes and the narration unfolds between the present and the Venice of 1678.
in Costanza is an exception by Alessia Gazzola, Longanesi, pp. 302, € 18.60
How was the character of Costanza born, a paleopathologist who loves and hates her work?
I discovered paleopathology by chance thanks to a documentary on Cangrande della Scala, in which they told how they discovered that he had been poisoned. He struck me and I told myself that if no one had written about a paleopathologist, I would have done it. The discipline is fascinating: it intersects medicine, anthropology, history, archeology… In such a sectoral context, you end up there by passion, or by chance. For Costanza, I chose the second path. She is a paleopathologist, but for her it is a transitional activity, not her profession of her life. As happens to many in their thirties today.
Alice is a coroner, Costanza is originally from Messina and lives in Verona, like her. How much of himself did he put into her protagonists?
There are connections to my daily life, but not to my life. Alice is a coroner like me, but she looks nothing like me. With Costanza I was interested in recounting the experience of the change of city, which I also experienced when my husband moved to Verona for work and I followed him. It is an interesting and present state of mind among young people. I then placed Sicily in the heart of Costanza, with linguistic and culinary references. I had never done it before, because Sicily is not a neutral scenario, it always ends up being the protagonist.
How did Alice’s orphaned readers welcome Costanza?
Someone may have felt betrayed, but change is the engine to have new things to tell, otherwise they make photocopy books. I like to experiment, to follow new paths. I have also written other novels, which have nothing to do with my two protagonists. The challenge is to get readers to follow Alessia, not Alice. Fortunately, the majority did.
Is this the last book of Constance?
Yes, I thought of it as a trilogy and I inserted an ending as complete as possible. But there is no certainty: if I feel like it in two years, I could reopen it.
What are the thirty-year-olds like today, the ones you tell about in your books?
More fearful of the future than ten years ago. These were complicated years: the pandemic, the war, the climate emergency were all problems that exploded together. And there are the social networks, which have a pervasive role, and not in a positive key, with effects on relationships. I started writing in my thirties because I was myself at the time. Now I am not anymore and therefore I listen and observe.
There is also the world of work for young women.
I tell about their working conditions, without taking myself too seriously. I don’t write social novels, but about escapism. I am talking about young mothers and their help network because the system does not support them. I photograph and tell the situations with my lens. If the reader is reflected and finds food for thought, he does not mind.
In this book the historical novel, the sentimental story and the detective story coexist. Would you define the contamination between genres as one of your narrative figures?
Yes, I have done it since my first book, when yellow-pink was not so represented. It was not understood by everyone, but it is a very personal formula, which guarantees me a loyal audience. I like to offer quality escapism.
Will there be television for Costanza too?
Something is cooking: a TV series for Costanza and a film for another book of mine. They are open construction sites.
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