Few things are as loved by today's kids as seriality. So Netflix, Amazon and the like are competing to propose increasingly compelling and time-dilated TV series, so as to keep the youngest glued to the screen of their smartphone. But is it possible to achieve the same result by focusing only on the voice? Is it possible to capture the attention of Generation Z with a serial audio series, albeit read by great actors?
This is the challenge launched by Manlio Castagna, a long-time writer with great experience in the world of fiction for young people, and by the Emons publishing house with "I diari del limbo" (Emons record 2021), the first example of a "young adult" and therefore for young adults.
In the course of 11 episodes of 40 minutes each, listeners will be able to become passionate about the adventures of Ottavia, a fourteen-year-old girl to whom one of the new talents of Italian acting, Greta Esposito, lent her voice.
It all begins when Octavia awakens in a mysterious and destabilizing place, the fortress of Haresind. Here the young woman finds herself disoriented, without memory and with a desperate desire to get out of the nightmare in which she happened. She will then set out on a journey, meeting other "prisoners" like her on her way and coming across the monstrous beings that inhabit the fortress. Only by passing one test after another will he be able to save himself and reconstruct the puzzle of his memories.
As exciting as a videogame with multiple levels of difficulty, "I diari del limbo" represents a new frontier of Italian publishing, an ambitious project, with potential yet to be discovered as confirmed by Manlio Castagna:
“We have decided to take a new path, exciting but also accompanied by some unknowns because we do not know how the boys will react to our proposal. Until a few years ago, young people who listened to audiobooks and podcasts were few, but now things are changing ... let's say it was time to jump in! "
What prompted you to try this new path?
“There was the desire to get in touch with all that large audience of young people who are moving away from reading, attracted by other forms of entertainment. In short, we wanted to explore new avenues because it was not a question of making a simple podcast or the classic audiobook, but creating something that reminded of the radio plays of the past - with the actors playing the various parts, the musical commentary, the sounds - but in a modern perspective. The challenge was to create a compelling product, capable of involving young audiences, but without the aid of the image ".
