Beyond The Sketch

Noemi has spent her life surrounded by unfinished things. In Torino, she works an ordinary job, cares for her younger brother, and tries to live quietly beneath the weight of her father Saverio's disappearance and the grief that followed her mother's death. Her father was a gifted artist, but he left behind more than memories. He left a strange sketchbook—and one unfinished drawing that refuses to remain unfinished. When Noemi finally completes the final strokes, the drawing opens a door. Beyond it lies Bottega, an impossible world built from ink, paper, color, and imagination. Its streets are alive, its inhabitants are drawn into existence, and unfinished creations can become something far more dangerous than abandoned art. There, Noemi discovers that her father was not simply an artist. He was connected to the origins of this world, its mysterious rules, and a growing threat that is spreading from the White. But Bottega has its own secrets. A blind master who teaches that color must be heard. A sharp-tongued cat with mismatched wings. A gatekeeper who knows more about Noemi than he should. And an entire city filled with people and creatures who were once nothing more than unfinished strokes. As Noemi searches for the truth about her father, she must confront a difficult question: if every drawing can become alive, what happens to the things an artist chooses to abandon? Because something forgotten for too long may eventually learn to walk on its own. And when the unfinished come looking for the people who left them behind, Noemi may be the only one capable of deciding whether they should be erased, completed, or remembered.