Gamba & Gastinell

"Gamba & Gastinell" is a novel that moves with agility between thriller, introspection, and existential narrative. Sarah McCulay constructs a vibrant story, where the adrenaline of a financial scam intertwines with the personal dilemmas of those who carry it out.

The book tells the daring scam of a group of characters as charismatic as they are dysfunctional, led by a narrator who constantly finds himself caught between guilt and pride for his actions: Enzo Gastinell, an alcoholic who perpetually feels as if he's on Mars, with a philosophical weight that drives him into a continuous limbo, urging him towards irrationality. One could say that "Gamba & Gastinell" is a masterful blow that ultimately reveals the darkest secrets of a nation's financial elite, dismantling the façade of a corrupt system.

However, the true heart of the novel lies in its characters. From the mysterious Gianni Gamba, whose end is entirely unexpected, to Ni, the partner who shares with the protagonist a relationship marked by uncertainty; although she would have wished for certainty and security to be the outcome of that relationship, in this book, each figure brings a human dimension that goes beyond the crime that unites them. The narrator, with his melancholic and fatalistic tone, delves into reflections on escape as a way of life, self-deception, and the need for redemption.

The downfall of Mariel, accused of espionage, becomes the tragic echo of a life built on lies and betrayals, thus closing a story in which personal victories are as ambiguous as the fate of the protagonists themselves.

Sarah McCulay manages to make "Gamba & Gastinell" much more than a criminal tale: it is a testament to the emotional cost of living on the margins, the fragility of power, and the relentless search for identity in chaos. With agile prose, punctuated by poetic moments and a constant reflection on fate and memory, this novel captures the reader and invites them to question what it truly means to win in life.