The Cagliari-born writer Paolo Maccioni, already author of several novels – including Buenos Aires troppo tardi (Arkadia, 2010) – won the Leopold II di Lorena National Literary Prize, based in Grosseto, for the unpublished section, with his work “Brooklyn Chop Shop”.

The novel—a true crime novel set in New York City twenty years ago—tells the story of a narcissistic, sex-addicted oral surgeon, overcome by opioid addiction, suspended from his medical practice, and reborn in the shadowy world of tissue harvesting from cadavers, eventually becoming a millionaire. A market almost inconceivable in our latitudes, but one that is real in the United States, even managed by publicly traded companies.
"The expression 'chop shop,' which gives the title," explains Maccioni, "is American slang for a clandestine workshop where stolen cars are dismantled to resell the parts. My character did the same, but on dead bodies." This intense narrative project has been developing for nearly ten years, partly after the author, a dentist, met the protagonist personally during his specialization in oral surgery at New York University.
At a time when writing is increasingly exploring the present, Maccioni's overseas literary adventure marks an important step for the Sardinian cultural scene: an author who begins in Cagliari, drawing on his profession and experience abroad, to tell a story that transcends geographical and moral boundaries, encompassing fame, fall, and rebirth.
Thanks to the award he recently won, Maccioni is now aiming for publication, hoping that this long and complex work—the fruit of extensive study and research—will soon find a suitable home.

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