Thursday 22 January, 6.30pm,
The Feeling of Iron by Giaime Alonge
The author in conversation with Paolo Nelli
The Feeling of Iron (Europa Editions, translated by Clarissa Botsford), a gripping historical thriller that spans the horrors of World War II and the geopolitical complexities of the 1980s, was named one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2025.
Shlomo Libowitz and Anton Epstein, two Jewish prisoners subjected to horrific experiments in a Nazi concentration camp, survive the unimaginable. Decades later, their lives converge again as they hunt Hans Lichtblau, the SS officer who tormented them, now operating in the shadowy world of Cold War geopolitics. Their pursuit takes them from the ashes of Europe to the jungles of Central America, where justice and revenge blur against the backdrop of CIA conspiracies and a haunting past. But one life may be too short to settle all accounts, and Anton and Shlomo’s belated revenge is also a race against time… With vivid characters and a masterful blend of fact and fiction, perfectly balanced between two continents and two eras, The feeling of iron confronts the moral ambiguities of vengeance and the inescapable echoes of history.
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Giaime Alonge is an associate professor of Film History at the University of Turin. He is a screenwriter known for works including Rust (2011) and Anywhere Anytime (2024), and is also an author; his novel The Feeling of Iron, translated into English by Clarissa Botsford, marks his literary debut in English-language fiction.
Paolo Nelli is an author and a lecturer in Italian Language Education at King’s College London. He also collaborates with the Italian Cultural Institute in London, where he leads the literary Book Club.