The only anecdote in this particular novel is based on the theme of the return. A metaphysical valise is abandoned on a doorstep at the moment of a return to “Torre Pulo”. Cavaliere Ciro Saverio Paniscotti’s descendant has returned to the faraway and desolate land of the Murge. It is a return from Paris, the symbol of modern illusions of man’s redemption, to Puglia, land of the past, of superstitions and forgotten knowledge. In that “Ivory Tower” his ancestor’s thoughts are revealed through his writings; which deal with knowledge in an abnormal and irregular manner, yet at the same time in an orderly and defined fashion. Cavaliere Paniscotti’s pages deal with various emblematic themes: fire, triangles, privileges, mistakes, women, riddles, cannibals and even more, to arrive, inevitably, to the topic of death. The apofasia is understood here as a suspension of judgement, but it isn’t the epoche of phenomenologist philosophy, instead it is a sort of “beam”, a completely different category, poetic, irregular, personal. Moreover, it is a double beam: the blinding light of the deserts of sunny Puglia versus the light of scientific presumption and reasoning that history has assigned to the past; yet is in fact, still subtly operative. Panunzio’s language is an ironical and baroque play of words, a literary design both evocative and musical, making for highly significant prose, a sharp and intelligent text of pleasurable, thoughtful reading.