La Gang dei Sogni

Illustration for a double-page spread for Icon Magazine Italia column by Cristina Di Canio about Luca Di Fulvio’s novel "La gang dei sogni".

The artwork captures the raw, visceral essence of the immigrant experience—the defining emotional axis of the book. By placing the viewer on the bow of the ferry alongside the travelers, I aimed to pull the reader directly into that suspended moment where the past collides with the promise of a "future." This is not just a historical reconstruction; it is a visual exploration of the fragility of hope and the weight of displacement.

In keeping with my approach to narrative illustration, the focus is on graphic synthesis. 

Cetta crosses the Atlantic with her six month old son, Natale. Arriving at Ellis Island a clerk’s stroke of a pen replaces his true identity with a new name, Christmas marking his baptism into the brutal, chaotic underworld of 1920s New York.

His life becomes a relentless struggle for survival, defined by the clash between his displaced past and his fierce ambition. Christmas grows into a man haunted by the erasure of his origins, fighting to claim his place in a city that demands everything in exchange for the dream of a new life.