Every story is a place

How decisive is the environment in shaping the development of a story? Can a murder take place only within the confines of the house where it is depicted? Is a character born before or after the landscape that envelops them? And how do the new digital realms, virtual yet omnipresent, which we navigate daily, influence literary creation? These questions prompt a comprehensive exploration - perhaps something even more - between two of the leading figures behind the 21st-century Italian novel. Both writers are so intimately connected to 'places' that they frequently incorporate them into their book titles: Paolo Cognetti (The Eight Mountains, Giù nella valle) and Nicola Lagioia (The Lying Game, The City of the Living).