Antonio Manzini - A Cold Death

CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2016

First published as Adam’s Rib in the United States by Harper in 2016

Originally published as La costola di Adamo in Italy in 2015 by Sellerio Editore, Palermo

Copyright © Antonio Manzini 2015

English-language translation copyright © 2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Antonio Manzini asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work.

Cover images © Christie Goodwin/Arcangel (figure);

Johanna Huber/SIME/4Corners (background)

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008124335

Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008124359

Version: 2016-06-10

To Uncle Vincenzo

A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring.

—JANE FONDA

COVER

TITLE PAGE CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

COPYRIGHT COPYRIGHT CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE PUBLISHER 4th Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.4thEstate.co.uk First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2016 First published as Adam’s Rib in the United States by Harper in 2016 Originally published as La costola di Adamo in Italy in 2015 by Sellerio Editore, Palermo Copyright © Antonio Manzini 2015 English-language translation copyright © 2016 HarperCollins Publishers Antonio Manzini asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Cover images © Christie Goodwin/Arcangel (figure); Johanna Huber/SIME/4Corners (background) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008124335 Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008124359 Version: 2016-06-10

DEDICATION DEDICATION CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE PUBLISHER To Uncle Vincenzo

EPIGRAPH EPIGRAPH CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE PUBLISHER A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring. —JANE FONDA

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ALSO BY ANTONIO MANZINI

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

They were March days, days that bring splashes of sunshine and hints of the springtime to come. Shafts of sunlight, warm, not yet hot, and fleeting, but still: light that colored the world and kindled hopes.

But not in Aosta.

It had rained all night long and pellets of watery snow had pelted down on the city until two in the morning. Then the temperature had plunged by many degrees, handing defeat to the rain and victory to the snow, snow that continued to flake down until six, covering streets and sidewalks. At dawn, the sun came up diaphanous and feverish, illuminating a city washed white while the last straggling snowflakes fluttered lazily down, spiraling onto the sidewalks. The mountains were swathed in clouds and the temperature sat several degrees below freezing. Then a malevolent wind sprang up unexpectedly, charging into the city’s streets like a raiding party of drunken Cossacks, rudely slapping people and objects.

On Via Brocherel, the wind had only objects to slap, given the fact that the street was deserted. The NO PARKING sign tossed and wobbled while the branches of the small trees planted along the road creaked like the bones of an arthritic old man. The snow, which hadn’t yet been packed down, whirled through the air in little wind funnels, and here and there a loose shutter banged repeatedly. Gusts of icy powder swept off apartment building roofs.

As Irina rounded the corner of Via Monte Emilus onto Via Brocherel she was caught by a punch of cold air straight to her face.

Her hair, gathered in a ponytail, swung out behind her; her blue eyes squinted slightly. If you’d taken a close-up of her and knew nothing about the context, you might think she was a madwoman without a helmet riding a motorcycle at 75 miles per hour.

But that sudden icy slap in the face actually felt to her like a gentle caress. She didn’t even bother to tug closed the lapels of her gray woolen overcoat. For someone who’d been born and raised in Lida, just a few miles from the Lithuanian border, that blast of wind was nothing more than a mild spring breeze. While it might still be winter in Aosta in March, back home in Belarus they were dealing with ice and temperatures around 15 degrees, well below freezing.