"What does it mean to be lucky?", cries a street vendor outside the church of Santa Chiara in the heart of Naples. In his hands he holds a handful of key rings with bunches of chillies hanging from them, which are actually small horns; they are supposed to serve as a good luck charm. We pass by, following the writer Ildefonso Falcones (Barcelona) complaining about the homeless. Six centuries ago, in 1448, Santa Chiara was already this Gothic molar of imposing dimensions but simple appearance, "a simplicity, prelude to the majesty of the interior, similar to that of Santa Maria del Mar," writes Falcones. In love and in war (Rosa dels Vents / Grijalbo), which hits bookstores on Tuesday, February 18.