My books are first and foremost about people. About love, friendship, relationships between men and women, encounters and separations, respect and tolerance, different cultures, journeys, choices, mistakes and second chances.
Nothing is fictionalised: these are true stories, lived experiences and first-hand accounts, told from inside the Foreign Legion and in the places where they actually happened. Inevitably, some of these stories also involve war and the violence that comes with it, but at the heart of my books are people, feelings, relationships, life-changing choices and the desire to start again.
They tell of real lives, with all their contradictions and vulnerabilities. They tell of what it means to fall, to change direction, to find the courage to get back up and start again, and to keep believing, even when it seems too late.
The Legion is the setting. People are the story.
THIRTY METRES
The Distance Between Failure and the French Foreign Legion
Danilo Pagliaro
At 37, Danilo Pagliaro started again. After failing his first attempt to join the French Foreign Legion, he returned, succeeded, and went on to spend nearly twenty-four years in its ranks.
This is the true story of that extraordinary journey — from Italy to France and into one of the world's most legendary military institutions — told from the inside by a man who lived it. Beyond the uniform are the men themselves: their friendships, relationships, the cultures they bring together, choices, failures and second chances.
A first-hand account based entirely on real events and lived experience — a story of falling, getting back up and finding the courage to begin again.
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