In Fantastic Echoes in Contemporary Italian Literature, Castagnino argues that contemporary Italian fiction often uses fantastic tropes to address realistic concerns. In doing so, he establishes a connection between the tradition of Gothic and fantastic fiction and societal concerns over topics such as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and personal and collective memory. The study of, among others, Nicola Lagioia, Simona Vinci, Alessandro Perissinotto and Michele Mari delivers a powerful rendition of the practical applications that fantastic and Gothic tropes have for an understanding of today's Italian fiction.