THE STORY OF EUGENIO MONTI, BETWEEN ICE AND COURAGE, FALLS AND RESTARTS, IN AN ITALY THAT DISCOVERED SPEED AS DESTINY, RISK AS LANGUAGE, AND MORAL ELEGANCE AS A FORM OF GREATNESS.
“Flying Red” by Stefano Rotta, is a fictionalized biography that is as fast-paced as its protagonist: fast-paced and with the wind in his eyes. It tells Eugenio Monti, Born in Dobbiaco in 1928, a boy from the Dolomites with red hair and an unrestrained lust for life. Gianni Brera coined the nickname that would make him immortal, and Rotta took it seriously: he transformed it into a narrative trajectory, a taut line that spans the economic boom, provincial dreams, and the fever of speed. Monti is a natural talent. On skis, he even beats Zeno Colò, seemed destined for a brilliant career, but two injuries knocked him off the track. Instead of stopping, he accelerated. This is where the legend of bobsleigh was born, an extreme and pioneering sport, made of wood, ice, and courage, where you often fall and sometimes you don't get up again. Eugenio, however, won. He won a lot, and for Italy he built a medal collection that smells of epic. But the heart of the book isn't the statistics. It's the man. The charisma, the generosity, the fair play that in 1964, in Innsbruck, led him to gift a bolt from his bobsleigh to his English opponents, allowing them to win gold. A gesture worth more than any record, narrated in the book with the delicacy of prose and the speed of cinema. Between sports commentary and period novel, "Flying Red" is the portrait of an Italy that raced without knowing where it would end up, but with the certainty of not wanting to stop. A story of victories and shadows, of enthusiasm and melancholy, until the final, chilling, and definitive night. A book that celebrates not only a champion, but a way of being in the world: open-minded, with risk as a companion and dreams as a compass. Rotta writes with a clear language and a reportage-like pace, alternating dialogue, landscapes, and lightning-fast insights, and conveys to the reader the flavor of an era when risk was a virtue and kindness a revolutionary act. It's a quick read, like a descent on ice.
