IDENTITY
The state gave him two letters. He spent a decade carving a name those letters could not hold.
MEMORY
Paper forgets. A man with a belt buckle found a harder surface to keep what he knew.
THE POWER OF CREATION
No paper, no pen, no permission. Forty minutes to an hour on some days, longer on others, and plaster became a book.
LEGACY
He died in 1994. The wall, the notebooks and the people who stopped to read him are still here.
Author of Dear Wall
Meet the Author
Maria Rago
For twenty years Maria Rago’s creative language had been music: piano, film scores and orchestral composition.Her work kept returning to the idea of giving voice to people who have none, and to the difference between speaking and being heard. Then she found the story of a man entered in a ledger without a name, who spent years writing himself into a wall, and of the person who chose to read him.
Dear Wall is her first novel. This story asked for a different language, and she chose words instead of music.
Experience the Story: Official Book Trailer
Ninety seconds in the yard at San Girolamo, where the wall begins.
Step inside the walls of San Girolamo and discover the extraordinary true story that inspired Dear Wall. In this official book trailer, enter Fernando’s world and witness how a forgotten wall became a powerful record of identity, memory, isolation, and survival—leaving behind a story that would endure for generations.
History of NN Audio 3:48
Book Inspiration Audio 1:12
Graffi Profondi: The Exhibition Has Ended
Graffi Profondi (Deep Scratches) ran at the Santa Maria Maddalena Exhibition Centre in Volterra until 27 September 2026. It displayed sections of the original graffiti carved by Fernando Nannetti, who signed himself NOF4. The exhibition has now closed.
Why Dear Wall Matters
Fifteen Minutes Of Paperwork.
Fifteen Years In The Ward. A Decade Carving An Answer.
A doctor had fifteen minutes to describe Fernando and reached for three words. Fernando had fifteen years and a belt buckle. What he carved is a record of the men around him, kept by someone the paperwork had already filed away.
Discover More
Dear Wall is a novel. The wall is real.
Out now in paperback, Kindle and hardcover
Dear
Wall
Volterra, 1958 to 1994
He arrives at San Girolamo carrying nothing the inventory thought worth listing, and one buckle nobody remembered to take. For over a decade, he writes on the wall of the exercise yard, through fifteen years inside its walls. This is the novel of what he wrote, and of the nurse who copied it down.
