This paper claims that the archetypical theme of the death of the father has acquired new significance in contemporary Italian novels that revolve around the theme of work. After showing how this literary topos appears in the production of an earlier generation of writers (Buzzi and Parise in particular), the paper explores the way in which twenty-first century writers have transformed its meaning to make it relevant to contemporary concerns about work. Using examples from such authors as Bajani, Nata, Pennacchi, Prunetti, Rea, and Valenti, the paper argues that these writers use the death of the father as a metaphor of the existential anxieties resulting from the contemporary world of work. A Pasquale Di Sabato, incomparabile maestro.