KennySalustro
Humans, with their insatiable hunger for electricity, plastic, and everything in between, ended up triggering the final climate disaster on Earth. Then, from the far side of the galaxy, the aliens arrived. Not to offer a second chance, but to collect what was left of humanity and carry it off to their home planet.
After several decades of genetic engineering and bionic implants, humans became the perfect pets. No more wars, no more hunger. Just a few chores now and then, a bit of housework to take care of, while the masters prepare for yet another interstellar expedition. With the family's approval, there's even room for some fun (or something vaguely resembling it).
Gap was born into this new world. To him, Earth is a fairy-tale realm, and freedom is whatever his adoptive family allows him to do without consequences. For years, he's lived under the protective wing of mom and dad's spaceship, caught between the suffocating embrace of his monstrous sister, his brother's unsettling games, the "box", the garden, and the castle. But there's never been a place where he truly felt at home.
They had gifted him Zoe, the lover who seemed to share his same inner torment. Now, she's dead and, with her, every last hope has vanished. She left behind almost nothing: a bottle of perfume, a trail of indelible memories in Gap's mind and a diary she had kept hidden from everyone while she was alive.
With those dusty pages now in his hands, Gap comes face to face with painful memories, confessions, regrets and secrets. Thus begins a hunt for the truth - a truth that, though powerless to change the past, might still alter the future.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK, WRITTEN IN ITALIAN (@Keeneve).