Written shortly after the events it tells of, this book reconstructs the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democratic Party, by the Red Brigades in 1978. At that time Moro was successfully promoting the idea of communist participation in the government as a way of moving Italy out of political deadlock and stagnation.

Sciascia’s version of events points to a rather murky scenario in which ‘reasons of state’ rather than humane considerations informed the government’s actions. Instead of giving a blow-by-blow account Sciascia dwells on the cowardly conduct of the politicians who refused to negotiate with the terrorists — thereby condemning an innocent man to death. He bases these observations on Moro’s letters from captivity to his friends and party colleagues, which attempted to persuade them to take a position more favourable to negotiation, one that might have saved his life.

Sciascia shows that the Christian Democrats denied Moro the respect due to a man who was one of their most important leaders, dismissing the letters as the dubious result of coercion and thereby sanctioning his death. This book is an act of accusation, opposing itself to the treacherous reasoning that placed political convenience above the life of a man.

‘It’s as if a dying man had risen from his bed, leapt into the air to swing from the chandelier like Tarzan from the liana, then rushed to the window and vaulted out to land, hale and hearty, in the street. The Italian State has revived. The Italian State is alive and strong , safe and sound. For a century it has consorted with the Sicilian Mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra, the Sardinian bandits. For three decades it has exploited corruption and incompetence, wasted public funds in streams and rivulets of unpunished embezzlement and fraud. For ten years it has quietly accepted what de Gaulle, while putting an end to it, called ‘recreation’ — schools occupied and vandalized and acts of juvenile violence against comrades and teachers alike. But now, confronted with Moro’s sequestration by the Red Brigades, the Italian State rises up strong and impressive. Who dares question its strength, its impressiveness? No one. And least of all Moro in the ‘People’s Prison’.

Nenni had said: ‘The Italian State is strong with the weak and weak with the strong’. Who are the weak today? Moro, his wife and children, those who think the State should have been and must be strong with the strong.’