The Nightmare Behind the Door (my new English novel) is a haunted house story. We could put it that way, or, if you prefer, a ghost story that, however, doesn’t have much that’s classic about it. Of course, when horror narrative enters a house, you’ll find some widespread and recurring tropes (narrative conventions).
The cellar, for example. How many times, while watching a film, have we almost insulted the protagonist who made the unfortunate choice to descend those stairs? In The Nightmare Behind the Door there’s also a cellar, and it will play a fundamental role. However, the outcome of what happens down there is the real difference between a horror story you’ve heard before and one that’s actually original. Well, The Nightmare Behind the Door offers a different solution from the usual. Read it to believe it.
Another classic trope of haunted houses is the attic. You can rest assured that here there isn’t even a shadow of an attic, but there is a garden. A strange garden made of reed beds raised above the ground level of the house. And then there are gnarled orchards like in the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, and then there’s an entire town, Verulengo, which has rather strange dynamics and then…
And then, well, read it. My objective, with this brief introduction, was only to invite you not just to read the novel, but also to present you with the first testimony of a haunted house. It dates back to over two thousand years ago and was recounted to us about a hundred years later by Pliny the Younger. I narrate it for you in this video that you can click below. Enjoy listening and… enjoy yourself, if you can. You can also listen to the video in the English translation.
