Gabriele Caruso

Gabriele Caruso is an Italian writer from Naples, currently pursuing a degree in engineering while also serving in the military and working as an aircraft maintainer. With a passion for storytelling rooted in vivid imagination, Gabriele writes without outlines — instead, he visualises entire scenes and translates them into words with cinematic clarity. His creative process once included writing on early morning train rides, half-asleep yet fully immersed in the rhythm of the journey. Not only does he write, but he also composes original soundtracks for his stories, giving his fictional worlds a living, breathing atmosphere.
His debut novel, Angel’s Shadow, is an epic fantasy infused with spiritual depth, philosophical reflection, and emotional introspection. Centred on the eternal tension between light and darkness, the story invites readers on a soulful journey, not just through the characters’ world, but through their inner landscapes.Highlights from Toby Gribben's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to thank God It's Toby Highlights, the podcast version
of my radio show. We've got a cracking interview coming
up for you, and remember, if you want the full
unfeltered chaos, you can catch Thank God It's Toby Live
every Friday afternoon from three on Shout Radio. But enough

(00:22):
of the plugging. Let's get on with the interview.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Start back weekend right thank God It's Toby.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
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Speaker 1 (01:01):
A cast is home to the world's best podcasts, including
the David McWilliams podcast I'm Grandmam and When You're listening
To Right Now. Gabriella Caruso as the author of Angels
Shadow Fantasy, a spiritually rich epic that blends philosophy and

(01:23):
introspection and a battle between light and darkness within the soul.
And Gabriella is on the line with us here just now,
how are you today?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
I'm fine, Thank you, I'm so glad to be here.
I appreciate the fact that you can allow me to
show to everyone this story and your shadow.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
So, without giving too much away, can you tell us
a little bit about the story of the book.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yes, the story is about narrow path that the characters
leaves for knowing their own selves. They enter in contact
with their own spirit and mind, and in is mind
or sore, their encounter their own past self, future self,
and the present self. But also they fight with their

(02:09):
own demons, which represents, for example, the fears, the fact
that these demons don't allow them to reach their own potential.
They can't reach the status of a warrior of light,
warrior of God. And this story is an epic fantasy
in which there is a battle between the light and

(02:29):
the darkness, but in an extra dimensional situation.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So what was it that inspired you to write the book?

Speaker 3 (02:36):
What inspired me is the human soul, the human spirit,
the motivation because this story is not about an epic
fantasy and that's all. No it's not all. It is
a metaphorical representation of the human spirit of the battle
that we encounter meet every single day in our life,

(03:00):
and the fact that there is a spiritual battle in
everyday life in which we can decide to enter in
this spiritual battle or not. We can decide it.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
How would you describe the fantasy world that you've created
for the book?

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Gothic touturistic and it is like the Lord of Rings
or av attack or for example the givin comedy. But
it is more futuristic. We can see words of lightness
or darkness, very bright warriors, not dragons, but stones that
give you particular power on the sword. They put on

(03:39):
the stones on their own sword, and they have particular power.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Did you have any spiritual or philosophical texts that guided
or influence your writing?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yes, the Bible. The Bible is the first thing that
I put on this book. There are phrases of the
Bible for except efficini, in which there is described the
warrior with the armor and the function of the armor
in a spiritual meaning. Also other types of phrases, but

(04:14):
also the philosophical concept of yin a younger well.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
The book's title is angels shadows. So how does that
connect to the core themes of the story.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
It is a philosophical concept of a young because we
have an entity of light, the Angel, that focused on
the sun, and when he focused on the sun, the
shadows fall on his back. And this opposition between light
and darkness, in which the entity of light, which is

(04:45):
the Angel, can also have his own demons, also have
his own darkness, but on his back. I think about
the fact that you can point on the positive thing
about the sun, but you can leave the negative things
on your shoulder. It is a metaphorical concept.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
So which character surprised you the most during the writing?
Was there one who developed in ways that you didn't expect?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Carl, because he starts from weakness, a really great, great weakness.
He remembers about his past and all the kind of
things that makes the weakness the way he was, and
through the story he followed on a path he becomes
the greatest version of warrior of light.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
And if you could speak to one of your characters
as their creator, what would you like to tell them
or ask them?

Speaker 3 (05:44):
I can ask them if they really knowing their self
after this path, and I think that the answer will
be yes. It is development and knowing on they all soul,
the deepest part of the also the high path.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
What is a moment in the book that you think
readers may overlook but actually holds a lot of meaning.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
The part to where Carl enters in his mind and
meet his own self. That moment is really important because
it is a reflection of the writer. It is a
personal thing in that moment, but not only a personal thing.
I think that everyone can live one time in the

(06:30):
life the talk moment with your own as self, that
confront that can you have with your assel And it
can be a said moment or a good moment. It
depends on you.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
And what's the main message or emotion that you hope
readers will take away from Angel's Shadow.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
We have to turn on our light into your light.
We have to become the best version of ourself and
fight or internal demon. We have to fight or shadows
because we have shadows. We have times in life where
shadows are too much and we have to fight with

(07:09):
all of them and encounter the lights.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Now, do you have any plans to write any more
books after this one?

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yes? I call it the Engine Shadow project because it
will be Engine Shadow two, three and four. It will
be a saga because I want to extend it to
every part of the world, and I hope it will
be a comic caid. It will be, but it is
a great, great dream for this. I call it the
Engine Shadow project because I came for nothing from the bottom.

(07:40):
I wanted to reach Gagens. It is a thing for
every person to have a dream like me. If I can,
you can. This is not a simple book, but a project,
a project of happiness and dream.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well. In the meantime, this current book is called Angel
Shadow Fantasy. So where are we able to find that book?

Speaker 3 (08:02):
And we can find it on Aqua Publishing from Simon
Is and on every platform Amazon, ebs, Fatinelli in every Sight,
on Google he shad book and then you can edit brilliant.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Well, Maddy, thanks for joining us today. It's been great
having you on the show.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Thank you very much, Thank you. Thanks for all the listeners.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Fridays for celebration, good times and relaxation. So turn the
radio up and just listen. Listen if you've got that
Fridday feel and you soon beg thats in on the
ceiling and all because of your host, Tommy great the
guests are brilliant, Misics fantastic, tommysterrific and speech is a classic.

(08:47):
So let's reach now heights and start that we can write.
Thank god it's Toby