New True-Crime Translation by Elettra Pauletto ’17 Out Now

All the Lies They Did Not Tell, a work of true-crime by Pablo Trincia and translated from the Italian by alumna Elettra Pauletto ’17, was recently published by Amazon Crossing.

The case at the heart of All the Lies They Did Not Tell begins in rural Italy in the mid-1990s, when a six-year-old boy talks to the police, revealing a horrifying history of abuse. Shockingly, this is just the beginning, as more and more children reveal similar stories—dramatic tales of satanic sects and sex rituals performed by their parents. The children, sixteen in all, were removed from their homes and transported to protected locations, and still the accusations grew—eventually culminating in allegations of kidnapping, torture, murder, and sacrificial rites. But this wasn’t the final twist in the story. In fact, these accusations were completely fabricated. All the Lies They Did Not Tell dives into this mystery—what caused this mass hysteria, and is it possible for the families and the region to recover from the trauma? 

Gabriella Page-Fort, the book’s editor, described her work on the project, saying, “All the Lies They Did Not Tell reveals the subtle discrimination motivating one of Italy’s most notorious cases of mass hysteria. From the moment I learned about this case, my heart pumped in fear and anticipation—I had to know why these children were taken away from their parents . . . I was chilled to the bone . . . I know people are capable of shocking choices; I know how thin the bond is that ties us together in social harmony and how susceptible we are to a well-told tale. Through the eyes of author and podcast host Pablo Trincia, it all makes chillingly perfect sense.”

In the opening pages of the book, readers are dropped right into the action as a group of teenagers make a gruesome discovery: “Five children found the skull on the riverbank. It was midafternoon on a Saturday, and five thirteen-year-olds had gone looking for a place to fish. They found a nice thicket along the left bank of the Panaro River, at the point where it bends, just outside Finale Emilia going towards Modena. 

"Three of them were named Andrea. The other two were named Davide and Matteo. Matteo picked up the smooth, white cranium that lay a few feet from the water. At first, he took it to be a big rock half-covered in mud.

"‘Oh shit!’ he yelled, dropping it on the gravel.”

According to Publisher’s Weekly, “In straightforward prose, Trincia lets the facts speak for themselves. True crime fans won’t want to miss this engrossing tale of mass hysteria and a massive failure of the Italian court system.” 

All the Lies They Did Not Tell is available for purchase now.

Elettra Pauletto translates from Italian and French into English. Her writing and translations have appeared in Harper’s, Guernica, and Quartz, while her book translations have spanned a range of subjects, including music, art, and narrative nonfiction. She now divides her time between Italy and western Massachusetts.