Città Remota is a chilling blueprint of the near future, where the "Self" is the first thing to be deleted in the name of comfort.
By utilizing a protagonist who exists primarily as a null-subject, the narrative mirrors the "digital retreat" it describes. It is a story told from the perspective of a ghost inhabiting a high-definition machine. The horror lies not in the "Con"—the possibility that the protagonist is a kidnapped sample in a VR experiment—but in the protagonist’s eager surrender to it.
The novel masterfully redefines Descartes’ classic pillar: here, one does not think to exist; rather, one is deceived, therefore one is. It is a brilliant, sterile, and deeply unsettling exploration of what happens to the human soul when it finally achieves its wish for total, mediated isolation.
(G/12-24-2025)