A grandfather has to look after his four-year-old grandson for a few days — with hilarious consequences! So the sell-line for the YouTube version of Domenico Starnone’s Trick (trans Jhumpa Lahiri, Europa, £11.99) might run: small child hurling granddad’s paints and pencils everywhere; granddad incapable of using any household appliance unless shown how by small child; granddad locked out on the balcony in pouring rain while small child is trapped inside.
But behind all this fun, lurks something darker. Daniele Mallarico, a famous illustrator in his seventies, is babysitting for his daughter so that she and her husband can go to an academic conference. In fact, their marriage is in trouble and they want to “evade the eyes and ears of their child and fight
