What happens to child prodigies when they grow up?

The proof that such genius doesn’t always die off is in Lorenzo Pelosini’s last novel, River Runner – The Golden Thread. It was John Irving who first noticed Pelosini’s early development as a narrative genius. The best-selling author read The Flight of the Hawk, written by Pelosini when he was only 14 years old, and decided to promote his young fellow author with a flattering introduction to his novel. And in 2014 Pelosini’s transition into a full-grown talent was confirmed with the release of his novel River Runner- The Golden Thread.

In the case of River Runner, it was the famous critic Fabio Canessa, an Italian authority on film and international literature, who discovered the novel, and expanded its notoriety across Italy. Ironically enough, the struggle for this specific form of talent to transition from childhood to maturity is also the central conflict of the story within River Runner. In fact, it is this meta-narrative reflection that makes the novel so brilliant. The main character’s battle to escape his prison is the perfect parallel to the one the author faced himself. In spite of that, this isn’t a story fueled by narcissism. It is one that’s propelled by an authentic desire for freedom, a motivation to grow into a more honest version of oneself, something we can all relate to. Although River Runner is indeed a fantasy, at least officially, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings aren’t the tales that come to mind, instead, it is a cross between Shawshank Redemption and The Truman Show.

While fantastic literature and movies of the same genre take us up in the air and out of our world for a ride, River Runner takes us deep within it, straight into the very core of our personal little world, where our greatest demons lie alongside the best parts of us. This is essentially why River Runner works. It succeeds where many stories fail in the sense that it offers us a looking glass into the terrifying and often hidden parts of our souls– which are arguably the most valuable. This is not to say that the novel is the best product to come out of the world of popular young adult narratives. In fact, we are not talking about excellence, but rather, transcendence. If we visualize contemporary literature as a two-dimensional flat land, to quote Edwin Abbott Abbott, excellence would be creating a product that extends miles and miles in the two dimensions that such flatland conceives. On the other hand, transcendence would be moving even just one inch up, into that third dimension which lies all around it, yet almost inconceivable.

There is so much more potential to be explored in Pelosini’s already breathtaking repertoire of work as a writer. His fluid style stretches light years beyond his age, something that is clearly revealed within the pages of River Runner. And whereas excellence is surely encrypted in this young author’s future, transcendence is already a part of his present.

There is a sharp edge in River Runner that tears a hole in the placenta that each person needs to outgrow in order to be reborn. Such birth isn’t the obligatory one we all undergo, nor is it a regular transition into adulthood. It is an alternative. A peek into something beyond our everyday existence and step onto a path that we do not often imagine. Not only is this transcendent quality rare, it is also essential to every time, decade and generation. And since hope and its nature is essentially the content of River Runner, we can only hope for Pelosini to soon deliver a successful continuation of this trans-dimensional saga. Thankfully for us, he intends River Runner to be the first novel in a highly anticipated trilogy.