La musica di Dale Released Today!

I’m thrilled to announce that La musica di Dale, an Italian edition of In the Key of Dale translated by Silvia Mercurio, is now available from Gallucci. I’m including the delightfully Heartstopperish cover here, and you can read a sample from Gallucci’s Issuu account.

Here’s the back cover copy as it appears in Italian:

Dale Cardigan ha sedici anni ed è un genio della musica. È orfano di padre e da un po’ ha capito di essere gay, ma il problema principale della sua vita non è tanto questo, quanto la timidezza e l’incapacità di stringere vere amicizie. Gli unici momenti in cui non ha paura di farsi vedere dagli altri per com’è veramente sono quando suona o canta, ed è proprio in una di queste occasioni che Rusty si accorge di lui. È l’inizio di un’amicizia o di qualcosa di più? A Dale in realtà non importa. L’unica cosa che conta sono le sensazioni che prova quando è insieme a Rusty, quelle che pensava solo la musica potesse regalargli: leggerezza, appagamento, felicità. E più di ogni altra cosa: libertà.

I was curious about how the Italian translator had summarized the plot of the novel, and thanks to Google Translate, the fact that I don’t understand Italian turned out to be a minimal problem:

Dale Cardigan is sixteen years old and a musical genius. He is an orphan of a father and for some years he has realized that he is gay, but the main problem of his life is not so much his sexual orientation, but his shyness and inability to make true friendships. The only moments in which he isn’t afraid to be seen by others as he really is are when he plays or sings, and it is on one of these occasions that Rusty notices him. Is it the beginning of a friendship or something more? Dale doesn’t really care. The only thing that matters to him are the feelings he feels when he’s with Rusty, the ones he thought only music could give him: lightness, contentment, happiness. And most of all: freedom.

The Italian edition is available in paperback and ebook formats. It can be purchased directly from the publisher or from bookshops such as Amazon (Italy), Giunti al Punto, LaFeltrinelli, and Mondadori Store.

Thanks to the fine folks at Arsenal Pulp Press (Vancouver) and at Otago Literary Agency (Bologna) for making this happen!

Gallucci is also the publisher, in two volumes, of the Italian translation (by Angela Ricci) of my edition of L.M. Montgomery’s The Blythes Are Quoted, which appeared as Racconti dall’isola: Prima della guerra [Stories from the Island: Before the War] and Racconti dall’isola: Dopo la guerra [Stories from the Island: After the War] in 2021.