Blackout [Paperback]

Gianluca Morozzi (Author), Howard Curtis (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2008

“A spine-tingling novel that keeps you mesmerized from beginning to end.”—InfiniteStorie

“Morozzi has a light touch. He has an uncanny ability to convey mood swings, excitement and plot twists with ever increasing velocity.”—Gazzetta di Parma

“A chilling and claustrophobic thriller with an unpredictable ending. Morozzi joins the best in the genre.”—LINUS

Bologna in August: unbearable heat, an empty city. Claudia is a young student in a hurry to return home from her work as a waitress and get out of the skimpy uniform she hates. Tomas is a young man on his way to elope to Amsterdam with his girlfriend, Francesca. Aldo is a husband and father with an uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley, anxious to get to an apartment filled with guilty secrets. All three have an urgent need to be somewhere else. Instead, they are trapped in an elevator in a deserted building on a holiday weekend. They are like three wasps in an upturned glass . . . and one of the trio is a serial killer.

This dark, twist-packed psychological thriller in the style of Phonebooth has been adapted as a US film to be released in the fall of 2008, starring Amber Tamblyn and directed by cult Mexican auteur Rigoberto Castañeda.

Gianluca Morozzi was born in Bologna in 1971, where he lives today. He is well-known as a cutting-edge satirist and music critic, often compared to Nick Hornby and Ben Elton. Blackout is his first thriller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Morozzi's overly clever psychothriller, three people get trapped in an elevator in Bologna, Italy—Claudia, a student moonlighting as an exotic dancer; Tomas, a teenager planning to rendezvous with his girlfriend in Amsterdam and elope; and Aldo Ferro, who looks like Elvis and just happens to be a serial killer. When chance brings them together, stuck between floors in a deserted building on a summer weekend, they first try to survive. But as the temperature rises and tempers snap, all three react to the stress in ways true to their nature. Clearly influenced by Hollywood movies and such classic Japanese manga as Battle Royale, the story offers plenty of suspense and well-drawn characters. Unfortunately, some unnecessary sadism and a contrived closing twist will leave some readers feeling less than satisfied. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* This latest Italian import will remind fans of Giorgio Faletti’s I Kill (2008), though it’s considerably bloodier. The novel opens with Aldo Ferro, Elvis impersonator, successful businessman, torturer, and serial killer, working on his latest victim. Returning to his private bachelor apartment for more supplies, late in the afternoon on one of the hottest Bank Holidays ever seen in Bologna, Ferro gets into an elevator with Claudia, a young waitress returning from work, and Tomas, a teenage boy about to run away to Amsterdam with his girlfriend. Halfway up, the elevator stops. No one’s cell phone has any service, and the emergency call box fails to work. Throughout this fast-moving, compulsively readable, and horrifying story, narration alternates between Aldo, Claudia, and Tomas as they struggle to escape, gradually descending into despair and even madness as the hours tick by. The tiny cast accentuates Morozzi’s skill at deep and detailed characterization, and he never once fails in pace or plot. The twist at the very end will leave readers questioning the very underpinnings of our world. A superb one-sitting read. --Jessica Moyer

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Product Details

• Paperback: 295 pages
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190473832X
• ISBN-13: 978-1904738329
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,662,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Stuck in a lift, will they survive?, March 21, 2011

By 

Feanor (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackout (Paperback)

Gianluca Morozzi has written a neat claustrophobic thriller set in the elevator of a residential building. In Black Out, three individuals, strangers to each other, enter the lift. Shortly thereafter, the power goes out and the trio is trapped between floors. Their back-stories are filled in between chapters that describe the continuously rising paranoia and terror within the cramped quarters of the lift. I'm not giving anything away when I say that one of the three is vicious serial killer, and his is the only background that is really relevant to the story. The other two could have been pilots or scuba-divers for all their lives had any consequence up to the point they are trapped. So far, so good. True to the genre, the innocents have to escape. How though? And is that all to the story? This is where Morozzi cranks up the unlikeliness factor, and the story - to my mind - degenerates to droll fantasy. It is written in that arch, self-consciously-talking-to-the-reader fashion that might grate on some; the staccato sentences might alienate others, but it is a thin book, trying a bit to be too clever, and will serve as a decent page-turner on a short trip to work.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fiction, May 28, 2009

By 

Grace Lee (Wyomissing, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackout (Paperback)

This is one of the best mystery I've read for a long time. It's deliberate in pace and exciting in suspense. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book to read and to collect.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tense psychological suspense, October 4, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackout (Paperback)

Everyone who can is escaping the summer heat of Bologna, Italy for the long August Bank Holiday weekend. Three people ride an elevator in a high rise apartment building in a city increasingly turning into a stone quarry as it empties of people. However, the elevator gets stuck trapping the trio inside between the eleventh and twelfth floor. In a somber greenish light that makes the BLACKOUT seem even eerier, the alarm fails and so does their mobiles. The two males struggle, but manage to open the door only to find a solid wall blocking the opening.

There is no place to go except to wait for help or the elevator to suddenly work. Claudia works as an exotic dancer to pay her bills while going to school. Teenage Tomas is meeting his girlfriend Francesca in Amsterdam; as they have planned to elope. Aldo owns a club, believes music died when Elvis died, and finds passion as a serial killer. As the elevator's heat rises to unbearable levels and increasingly hope for help coming soon diminishes to zero, the trapped threesome begin lose it as tempers ignite and sadistic interchanges occur.

Each of the trapped is a unique character with flaws that make them seen like real people spending unbearably heated time stuck in a closed environs with no hope for immediate rescue. The suspense grows as each becomes testier and angrier. Although an inane coda feels out of place and unnecessary, fans will enjoy this tense psychological suspense of three individuals sharing a horrific experience.

Harriet Klausner