Not just a simple book, but a dive into the collective memory of a painful and still too little explored past. “Sanatorium-Villa Clara”, the first anthology of the Academy of Art of Cagliari, is becoming a true publishing phenomenon.

With over 700 copies sold in just a few weeks, this 200-page book tells eleven stories of madness, suffering and hope, bringing together the voices of authors who have chosen to deal with the past of the most famous psychiatric hospital in Cagliari: Villa Clara.

The story is intertwined in a unique literary framework, conceived by the curator Andrea Fulgeri, who through the figure of Ismaele, one of the guests of Villa Clara, takes the reader on a painful and profound journey, trying to "bring order to the psychiatric disorder" that has marked the lives of those who have been interned for decades.

The stories, written by eleven authors (Enrico Casciu, Paolo Mereu, Simona Bolzati, Simone Aramu, Alice Andrea Deiana, Daniela Porqueddu, Cristiana Piras, Graziella Sitzia, Marco Loddo, Eleonora Alessandra Raga and Tamara Pes), come together to offer a choral vision of human suffering, each interpreting a face of madness, a unique perspective that goes beyond mental illness.

The choice to tell the story of Villa Clara, one of the longest-running psychiatric facilities in Italy, is a challenge, not only literary but also social .

The book is intended, in fact, as a cry of awareness against the prejudices and ignorance that surround these issues. As Fulgeri emphasizes, the historical memory of the hospital is essential not only to not forget a complex past, but also to break down the invisible walls between those who live with mental distress and the society that too often marginalizes them.

Making the volume even more evocative are the illustrations by Ilenia Loddo , which, like ex libris, open the story and introduce the reader to the world of Villa Clara, among the nightmares and fears that haunted the hospital rooms.