The course aims to investigate hyper-contemporary Italian narratives that focus on well-known crime cases, and that focus on investigating the phenomenologies of evil by attempting to enter the mind of the 'monster'. These types of narratives often hybridise novel and non fiction novel, creating an interesting short-circuit between the investigation of real events and the imaginary reconstruction of the psychology of 'extreme' characters. The course will be divided into two parts: in the first, some fundamental theoretical tools will be explored to frame the sample of texts within the contemporary Italian novel and to analyse the phenomena of 'empathy' or identification with extremely negative, disturbing, monstrous characters. In the second part of the course, excerpts from Italian novels dealing with some of the most heinous news events of recent years will be analysed, read and commented on in class, with particular reference to the reconstruction of 'monstrous' events and psychologies (Unabomber, Erika and Omar, the Rostov monster, the Avetrana crime, the Monster of Florence, the Varani murder, etc.).