FUN by Paolo Bacilieri

Hardcover. 2017. English edition.

Respected novelist Pippo Quester is writing a history of the crossword puzzle. Together with fan and protégé Zeno Porno – a Disney comics writer – he unearths stories of pioneering editors, genius cruciverbalists, eminent compilers and literary giants.  As Professor Quester and Zeno explore the crossed destinies of comics and crosswords, the sudden appearance of Mafalda, an enigmatic student carrying a grudge and a handmade pistol, throws the two writers into a present-day puzzle of their own.  Both an impeccably researched history and a playful literary crime story, Paolo Bacilieri’s  FUN is a breathtakingly inventive graphic novel that explores the strange power of one of the world’s most popular pastimes.