The Curse Of Knowing by Aldo Cernuto

ABOUT THE BOOK

Vittoria Armieri—a humble worker at a ministry in Rome—has the ability to access people’s lives: their pasts, their thoughts and feelings, and especially their tragic memories. Others would call it a superpower, but to her it’s a curse: it’s the source of such misery for her, that she’s now desperate to die, possibly at the hands of a murderer. But while she recalls her youth and the events that brought her to this point, something unexpected occurs. Something that not even Vittoria, with all her eerie savviness, could possibly have foreseen.

MY REVIEW

Vittoria “Vicky” has a curse of knowing everything and is choosing to end her life in a very unusual way, but a surprising someone comes into her life and changes her life forever.

Expressing how Vicky deals with her emotions and questions of morality while living with psychic abilities is a brilliant characteristic for a protagonist. Cernuto’s poetic descriptions and symbolic imagery of Vicky’s torment and guilt are profound and when she opens up to Nadine about her past, one can feel Vicky’s immense relief of unburdening herself. I can neither attest nor refute that this affliction is real so I can only imagine how awful and intrusive “the curse” could be.

Vicky is a complex and lonely soul just waiting to finally become the woman she is meant to be. Nadine is Vicky’s savior and I truly adored their friendship and mutual understanding. As for the sweet and kind Domenico, he is a wonderful addition to Vicky’s life despite his past mistakes.

Mr. Cernuto’s remarkable debut novel is full of heartache, fear, hope, and acceptance. The characters are distinctive and intriguing to the point of (as the author suggests) imagining and hoping they live happy and whole lives after the book ends.

Thank you to Mr. Cernuto for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aldo Cernuto (Turin, January 1955) developed his career in the advertising industry. First as a copywriter, then as an executive creative director, he has worked in some of the major networks, winning several international awards—six Lions in Cannes and two gold Clios in New York, to name just a few. He currently divides his life between two charming villages he has loved forever: beautiful Camogli, along the coast of Liguria, and Pimlico, in central London. Although this latter isn’t properly a village, it possesses the atmosphere and the quiet that make a hamlet—a secluded place, an ideal location for writing.