The year: 1954, the height of the Cold War . . . The world is divided into East and West . . . In Naples, Lucky Luciano and his minions are busy fixing horses-races, and overseeing the creation of the global heroin trade. In Hollywood, members of Her Majesty's Secret Service have a dangerous mission for the supremely elegant actor Cary Grant. And in Bologna, Pierre Capponi, a lovelorn young barman, is about to embark on a painful odyssey in search of his missing father, one that will end up taking him half-way around the world.
Bringing together all these strands and more is a missing television set, a McGuffin Electric, an appliance with a very special secret . . .
At once an adventure story and a comic caper, a political thriller and a touching romance, '54' has a cast ranging from Italian partisans to KGB agents, from American Mafiosi to Parisian lowlifes, and features cameo appearances by Alfred Hitchcock, Marshal Tito, Grace Kelly and the Emperor of Indochina. Wu Ming - the collective formerly known as Luther Blissett - have produced another unique tour de force that paints a dazzling picture of a past age while slyly commenting on our own.
