By sheer coincidence, four teenagers—from Italy, France, the United States, and China—find themselves the focus of a chase involving ancient maps, mysteries, and the constellations, culminating in a desperate attempt to piece together the clues that lie in modern-day Rome. By design, there are certain things that are supposed to occur when the four come together, but when the Parisian is abducted, it becomes clear that the plan has gone awry. The matters of who to trust—or not—including oneself, and of cosmic purpose define this first book in the Century Quartet series. Book 2, Star of Stone, was released in fall 2010 . bef

Originally published as L’Anello di Fuoco in Italian by Edizion Piemme Italy, in 2006. Translated by Leah D.

Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world.Rome, December 29.A mix-up with their reservations forces Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai to share a room with the hotel owner’s daughter, Elettra. The four kids discover an amazing coincidence—they all have birthdays on February 29, Leap Day. That night, a strange man gives them a briefcase and asks them to take care of it until he returns. Soon afterward, the man is murdered.The kids open the briefcase. In it they find a series of clues that take them all over Rome, through dusty libraries and dark catacombs, in search of the elusive Ring of Fire, an ancient object so powerful that legend says even a Roman emperor couldn’t control it.In the first book of the Century quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.