Podcast
Scamfluencers
It was mentioned as the debut novel of Filippo B. which is the pen name for Filippo Bernardini. The story of a shy teen who is bullied at school and he loves books and the internet. This was said to be a diary of a lonely outcast.
A strange book appears on the shelves of Italian bookstores.
— Episode: ENCORE: The Book Bandit
Episode: ENCORE: The Book Bandit
It was mentioned as the debut novel of Filippo B. which is the pen name for Filippo Bernardini. The story of a shy teen who is bullied at school and he loves books and the internet. This was said to be a diary of a lonely outcast.
A strange book appears on the shelves of Italian bookstores.
Its author is Filippo B. Its cover is a silhouette of a teen boy with gel tear, a popped collar, baggy jeans.
And the book's title is bully, which means the same thing in English as it does in Italian.
So, bully tells the story of Diego, a shy teen living in an unnamed suburb of Rome.
His parents are divorced and he's struggling to fit in at school.
His classmates tear into him because he looks, acts and dresses like a dork.
And he loves just two things. Books and the internet.
A loser, like yours truly.
And yet, Diego is also special. He's brilliant.
He's so brilliant that he gets his hands on a copy of the final Harry Potter book before anybody else does.
But despite pulling that off, he still remains an outcast.
So he figures he's got no choice but to become a bully, just like everybody else.
So that quote, everyone will like me because the truth is that I am better than them. That's really dark and it also is really sad.
Well, Filippo B is the not so subtle, gnome de plume of Filippo Bernardini, a bookish, awkward Italian kid, much like his main character, Diego.
And also like Diego, Filippo was raised by divorced parents in an elegant, medieval suburb of Rome.
Another trait they share is that Filippo seems pretty convinced that he's superior to everyone around him.
After all, he published bully his debut novel when he was still just a teenager.
Now, bully is basically the diary of a lonely outcast.
Filippo is so angry at his classmates that in the book, he uses their full names.
So this is essentially fanfiction of his real life.
Yeah. And the lesson of the book is pretty dark.
There is a relationship between tormentors and victims, something close to a real friendship or even love.
A person cannot live without others just as a tormentor cannot live without his victim.
Imagine writing that down. This is clearly a teen who's experiencing a lot of shit in their life.
Yeah. And by publishing a book, Filippo hopes to get the recognition and praise that he craves.