The novel tells the story of Frans Laarmans, a humble shipping clerk who takes unauthorised sick leave to accept a post as a cheese agent with responsibility for Belgium and – deep breath – the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

He immediately orders 10,000 full-cream Edams, but turns out to be hopelessly inept at selling them, spending more time organising his office furniture and working out a name for his company. By the end, he had sold only a couple of these round, red cheeses. The rest remained piled up in a warehouse, slowly turning rank.

That all changed on the evening of 4 August, when a squad of about 40 police officers from the Fugitive Assets Search Team (FAST) and the drugs squad of the federal police descended on the modest four-storey house where he lived in a third-floor apartment. Romano was led away in handcuffs with a bag over his head, and it was revealed that he was one of Italy’s 100 most dangerous fugitives.