Today the strange, dark satire Tancredi is out in bookstores. It’s about Tancredi, a young, crazy inventor whose biggest-selling invention is a gadget that detects moronic behavior. Unfortunately, it’s sold so well because people love to act like idiots, and they use the device as a guide for what to do. Disgruntled, Tancredi decides he must save the planet from its own stupidity — but first he must go into space.
Written by eccentric British entrepreneur James Palumbo, whose investments launched the music label Ministry of Sound, the story is a beautifully-illustrated parable about all the ways humans lie to themselves. Plus, there are spaceships and talking dogs. We’ve got a taste of the illustrations and a chapter for you to read.
Here’s how Palumbo describes it:
Tancredi is part satire, part fairy tale, part science fiction. It tells the story of a man who travels the Universe seeking a cure to humankind’s addiction to short-term thinking. It’s something I’m very worried about at the moment. It seems that everywhere you look – politics, business, even health care – nothing is properly thought through. It’s all about instant gratification, quick fixes, the here-and-now.
There are so many excellent books by economists and other thinkers on this subject. I wanted to do something with a different angle – light, funny, but still raising the questions. The book has also been beautifully illustrated by the talented young artist Rohan Daniel Eason. If you read it I really hope you enjoy it.
You can order the book via Amazon UK.
