Just who was Satoshi Nakamoto? Tracking leads from coastal Australia – through London, Oslo and Los Angeles – to the Arizona desert, and exploring Bitcoin’s utopian origins and the world it eventually wrought, The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto takes readers through a rogues’ gallery tour of Nakamoto suspects – and the eleven-figure fortune in his Bitcoin wallet still waiting to be claimed.

Nell’ottobre 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto pubblicò un “libro bianco” che delineava “un sistema di moneta elettronica peer-to-peer” chiamato Bitcoin su una misteriosa Listserv popolata da cypherpunk. Nessuno nella comunità aveva mai sentito parlare di Nakamoto, e proprio quando la gente iniziava a chiedersi chi fosse, scomparve…

Chi era Satoshi Nakamoto? Seguendo piste dalla costa australiana, passando per Londra, Oslo e Los Angeles, fino al deserto dell’Arizona, ed esplorando le origini utopiche di Bitcoin e il mondo che alla fine ha creato, “Il misterioso signor Nakamoto” accompagna i lettori in un tour alla scoperta dei sospetti di Nakamoto e della fortuna a undici cifre nel suo portafoglio Bitcoin, ancora in attesa di essere reclamata.

Calling himself the go-between, Ayumi lays down strict rules around the meetings between the living and the dead: the deceased cannot have been summoned by anyone else; they may refuse; and they must meet under a full moon. – Anxious Hirase asks to see the celebrity who showed her kindness at a critical moment;- An resentful family man wants clarity about a will from his beloved mother;- After a bike accident, a school girl has a question for her former best friend;- A salary man wants to ask the only woman he ever loved what caused her to run away. With each reunion, tantalizing clues are scattered for readers to piece together the emotional truth behind the go-between.

Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner. Running this unique establishment are a father-daughter duo who serve more than just mouth-watering feasts. The pair have reinvented themselves as ‘food detectives’, offering a service that goes beyond traditional dining.

Through their culinary sleuthing, they reconstruct beloved dishes from the memories of their customers, creating a connection to cherished moments from the past. Among those who seek an appointment is a one-hit wonder pop star, finally ready to leave Tokyo and give up on her singing career. She wants to try the tempura that she once ate to celebrate her only successful record.

Another diner is a budding Olympic swimmer, who desires the bento lunch box that his estranged father used to make him. The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t just serve meals – it revives lost recipes and rekindles forgotten memories. It’s a doorway to the past through the miracle of delicious food.

When Mirabelle and her family are invited to spend some time at a dragon sanctuary, Mirabelle cannot wait to get stuck in and show off everything she knows. But she’s about to find out that she’s not quite the dragon expert she believes herself to be …

There are few books which explain how these different legends fit into Rome’s overall narrative and none which explore the range of myths Matyszak describes. Some of the legends are well known, from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of the Sabines, whilst others are more obscure such as the story of the praetor Cipus, who grew horns and became a King of Rome. Whether renowned or unfamiliar, all are significant in their own way and have had a profound impact on the Romans.

Even today these myths continue to reverberate throughout western culture as films, TV shows and plays. Matyszak dissects these myths, investigating hard-to-find texts, such as the historical texts of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch’s Roman Questions sources, as well as classic texts like Livy’s From the Founding of the City and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, revealing that Rome’s illustrious mythological past is not quite as it might seem.