Frankfurt
2014
rights list
bompiani
F IC T ION
Focus on
Andrea De Carlo Umberto Eco
Sandro Veronesi
Primitive Heart
Numero Zero
Rare Earths
9
10
11
Roberto Andò
Camilla Baresani
Tinto Brass
Mauro Covacich Margherita D’Amico Maurizio De Giovanni
Federica De Paolis Luca Doninelli
Mario Fortunato Dario Franeschini Fausta Garavini
Antonella Gatti Bardelli
Stefano Jacini
Francesca Lancini
Tony Laudadio Francesco Merlo
Alessandro Mari
Candida Morvillo
Giorgio Montefoschi
Roberto Pazzi
Sergio Claudio Perroni Aurelio Picca
Lidia Ravera Pino Roveredo The Empty Throne
Himalayan Pink Salt
Madame Pipì
The Bride
Anomalies
Seven of Us
Ferdinando Is Back Home
Rewind
Make Sure this Road Never Ends
Berlin Voices
The Immaterial Occupations
of Sebastiano Delgado
Monsù Desiderio’s Lives
Margò
You Weren’t Born Bold
Family Weapons
Like a Nail in The Wall
Room 707
The Anonymous End
of Square Root
Stars Aren’t far Away
The Fragile Beauty of the Day
The Transparency of Darkness
Renuntio Vobis
A Day of Joy
Via Volta della morte
The Expired
Dancing with Cecilia
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14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
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24
25
26
27
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bompiani
MO D E R N
C L ASSICS
K I D S & MO R E
F IC T ION
B o m p i a n i NON - F IC T ION
Wilson Saba
Angela and Julie Scipioni Nikola Savic
Raffaella Silvestri
Giorgio Vigolo
Mariolina Venezia
Sole & Baleno
Iris & Lily
A Better Life
The Distance from Helsinki
Fantastic Rome
The Mechanical Fox
38
39
40
41
42
43
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia,
Andrea Andermann Chiara Carminati
Paolo Di Paolo
Agostino
Going Elsewhere
44
45
Out of Focus
The Flying Cow
46
47
Francesca Borri
Roberto Finzi Cristina Gabetti
Massimiliano Timpano, Pier Francesco Leofreddi
Salvatore Silvano Nigro
Giuseppe Zaccaria
The War Inside
The Honest Pork
Stepping Lightly
Closed for Kindle
50
51
52
53
The Devil’s Concierge
Boccaccio and the Origins
of the Modern Novel
54
55
Papa Francesco,
Ferruccio de Bortoli Carlo Maria Martini,
Umberto Eco
Nuccio Ordine
Nuccio Ordine
Valentina Pisanty
I’m a Priest, I Like it
56
Belief or Non-Belief
57
The Usefulness of the Useless
58
Three Crowns for a King
The Annoying Matter of Gas Chambers
59
60
Diego Fusaro
Franco Rella
Patrizia Violi
The Future is Ours
Forms of Knowledge. Eros, Death, Violence
Memory’s Landscapes
61
62
F AS H ION
Ennio Capasa A New World
64
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
Umberto Eco Sergio Risaliti
Vittorio Sgarbi Vincenzo Trione
The book of Legendary Lands
Michelangelo. The Vatican Pietà
The Viewpoint of the Horse. Caravaggio
The Wondrous Years
City Effect
65
66
67
CU R R E N T
ISSU E S
L I T E R A RY
C R I T ICISM
PASSA G G I
RECENT
H IS T O R Y
P H I L OSOP H Y
AN D S E MIO T ICS
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Fiction
Bompiani
F OCUS ON
Andrea De Carlo
Primitive Heart
C u o re pr imit ivo
A novel that relates the uncontrollable
truth of the protagonists – a truth that
is different for each of them.
Mara Abbiati, an Italian artist who
sculpts large stone cats, and her
husband Craig Nolan, a famous British
anthropologist, own a small holiday
home near Canciale, a village perched
high in the Ligurian Appennines, some
distance from the sea. One July morning,
following a violent thunderstorm, Craig
climbs up on the roof to check where
the rain has leaked in, and falls through
it, nearly breaking a leg. In a frantic
search for someone who can repair their
home, the Nolans get in touch with Ivo
Zanovelli, a builder who turns up on a
black Bonneville bike, bringing many
shadows with him.
A n dre a D e C a rl o
was born in Milan. He has written: Treno di panna, Uccelli da
gabbia e da voliera, Macno, Yucatan, Due di due, Tecniche di
seduzione, Arcodamore, Uto, Di noi tre, Nel momento, Pura vita,
I veri nomi, Giro di Vento, Mare delle verità, Durante, Leielui and
Villa Metaphora. His novels are translated in 26 countries.
His website is: www.andreadecarlo.com
The author is translated in: Albania; Argentina; Brazil;
Bulgaria; China complex; Croatia; Finland; Denmark; France;
Georgia; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Israel; Japan; Korea;
the Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Romania; Russia; Serbia;
Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Turkey; UK; US.
Bompiani
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Pages: 368
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 18,00
9
F OCUS ON
Umberto Eco
Numero Zero
F OCUS ON
Sandro Veronesi
Rare Earths
Terre r are
A mish-mash of journalists who cobble
together a daily paper concerned not so
much with information, but blackmail,
mudslinging, and cheap stories. A
paranoid staff writer who, roaming round
a hallucinatory Milan (or hallucinating in
a normal Milan), reconstructs fifty years
of history in the light of a sulphurous plot
built around the putrefying corpse of a
pseudo Mussolini. In the shadows lurk
the secret right-wing organization known
as Gladio, the P2 Masonic lodge, the
supposed murder of Pope John Paul I,
the coup d’état planned by Prince Junio
Valerio Borghese, the CIA, red terrorists
manoeuvred by the secret services, and
twenty years of slaughter and smoke
screens. A set of inexplicable events
that seem pure fantasy until a BBC
programme proves they are true, or at
least that the perpetrators have confessed
to them by now. A corpse that suddenly
shows up in Milan’s narrowest and most
disreputable street. A tenuous love story
between two born losers, a failed ghost
writer and a disturbing girl who in order
to help her family has dropped out of
university to specialize in gossip about
romantic attachments, but who still cries
when she listens to Beethoven’s Seventh.
A perfect manual of bad journalism in
which the reader gradually begins to
wonder whether it is all make believe or
simply true to life. A story that unfolds
in 1992, a year that foreshadowed many
mysteries and follies of the successive
twenty years, just as the two protagonists
think that the nightmare is over. A bitter
and grotesque episode that takes place
in Europe in the period spanning the
end of the war and the present day – and
one that will leave the reader feeling
every bit as much of a loser as the two
protagonists.
The sequel to Caos Calmo: a success with
more than 400, 000 copies sold, translated
in 28 countries
In just twenty-four hours a man loses
control of his life: he makes a serious
mistake at work, his driving licence is
confiscated, he finds his office sealed
off by the fiscal police, discovers that
his partner has run off leaving him
in big trouble, finally breaks up with
his companion – and meanwhile his
daughter has left home. Feeling hunted,
he in turn flees, but this sudden
disruption of his life seems more like a
precise plan. This man is Pietro Paladini,
the inert hero of Caos calmo, whom
nine years later we find searching for
that normality which he has suddenly
lost, or better – and this will be his
discovery – that he never really had.
S a n dr o Ver o n e s i
(1959) is considered one of the greatest Italian writers of
recent years. Bompiani has published his novels La forza
del passato, winner of the Premio Campiello and the Premio
Viareggio, Per dove parte questo treno allegro, Gli sfiorati,
Venite, venite B52, and Brucia Troia and his non fiction works
Num ero zero is the n o vel
by Um berto Eco closest to ou r own
ti m es
Live, Superalbo, No Man’s Land, Occhio per occhio, and Viaggi
e viaggetti. Caos calmo, winner of the Premio Strega, was
made into a film with Nanni Moretti and Isabella Ferrari,
which was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin
Festival.
W i n n er i n 2 0 0 6 o f Streg a Pr i z e
w i th h i s n o v el C a l m Ch a o s
T he F re n c h ed i t i o n w o n 2 0 0 8 Pr i x
F é m i n a a s b e s t f o re i g n n o v el , 2 0 0 8 Pr i x
Med i terr a n é e a n d 2 0 0 9 Pr i x C é v e n n e s
a s b e s t E u r o p e a n n o v el
Di s qui etin g an d iro n ic, it pro jects u s
i nto a narr ative driven b y real even ts
– som et im es h arrow ing, som et imes
grotes qu e – fr o m o u r histo ry .
T he S p a n i s h ed i t i o n w o n 2 0 1 0 Pre m i o
N o v el a E u r o p e a , C a s i n o de S a n t i a g o
de C o m p o s tel a
The author is translated in: Albania; Brazil; Bulgaria; China;
Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Holland; Israel;
Japan; Korea; Latvia; Lithuania; Macedonia; Netherlands;
Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russia; Slovenia; Spain (Castillian/
Galitian); Sweden; Thailand; Taiwan; Turkey; US.
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10
Pages: 180
Publication: January 2015
Price: e 14,00
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Pages: 364
Publication: October 2014
Price: e 19,00
11
Roberto Andò
The Empty Throne
Camilla Baresani
Himalayan Pink Salt
Il trono v uoto
il sale r o sa dell’h imal ay a
A novel that recounts the farce of politics
when the party leaders are inexistent and
anyone can take their place
The leader of the main opposion party,
Salvatore Olivieri, fifty years old, tired out
by the negative opinion polls and by some
judiciary problems, decides one day to hook
it: he disappears without telling anyone (not
even his wife or assistant), leaving just a
short note of reassurance. He anonymously
travels to Paris, to Danielle, an actress with
whom he had had a brief affair twenty years
before, but meanwhile, in Italy, his nearest
and dearest are trying to find a solution to
the very serious problem that Salvatore’s
disappearance has caused the party. His
wife and spokesperson turn to his twin
brother, Ernani, a professor of philosophy
and ex-psychiatric patient. He’s the only
one that could know where Salvatore is.
In actual fact, Ernani provides no clues
but takes over his absent brother’s position
in all naturalness: he gives interviews,
holds rallies, presides over meetings –
and, obviously, revolutionises the party’s
politicies. But this is not necessarily
harmful, on the contrary...
Tough, relentless, corrosive: Himalayan
Pink Salt tells the story of Giada, a thirty
year old living in Milan. The novel begins
on February 13, 2013; it’s raining and the
young woman is at home, waiting for a very
important, indeed, crucial guest. Dinner is
ready, but Giada – on a whim – decides to
go out to buy some Himalayan pink salt.
She wears high heels, she walks talking on
the phone, she is in a hurry, she is going to
meet a man who can change her life...
Suddenly two strangers come into the
scene: Giada’s life will never be the same.
This is the beginning of the story. Giada
is very ambitious. She is smart and she is
clever, yet others are smarter. Her struggle
to be a successful and famous PR becomes
Giada’s struggle against the world. The
conflict is not only against sworn enemies,
but against enemies that are hidden
everywhere, even where people least
expect them.
C a m i ll a B a re s a n i
R o b ert o A n d ò
besides his studies in philosophy, has collaborated with such giants of
cinema as Francesco Rosi, Federico Fellini, Michael Cimino and Francis
Ford Coppola. Besides cinema, he has directed for theatre and opera,
and multimedia, directing the Orestiadi, an international festival held
annually at Gibellina, Sicily, and the Festival Novecento at Palermo.
Among his most important shows: La Foresta-radice-labirinto, developed
from an unpublished text entrusted to him by Italo Calvino, with scenes
There is no love, no eroticism, no
seduction in this novel. There are betrayal,
violence and oppression. In the detached
and mocking style of Camilla Baresani
by Renato Guttuso; La sabbia del sonno, action for music and film with
music by Luciano Berio and Marco Betta; the multimedia opera Frammenti
sull’Apocalisse, interpreted by Moni Ovadia. In 1999 he directed Le
Martyre de Saint Sébastien by Gabriele D’Annunzio and Claude Debussy
at the Teatro Massimo, Palermo. In the same year he realized the film Il
Manoscritto del Principe produced by Giuseppe Tornatore. His second film,
Sotto falso nome, starring Daniel Auteuil, is dated 2002.
was born in Brescia. She made her debut as a novelist with
Il plagio (2000; 2006), followed by Sbadatamente ho fatto
l’amore (2002; 2011). In 2003 her essay Il piacere tra le
righe was published; this was followed in 2005 by the novel
L’imperfezione dell’amore and in 2006 by TIC – Tipi Italiani
Contemporanei, written with Renato Mannheimer. In 2007 she
wrote La cena delle meraviglie with Allan Bay. 2010 saw the
publication of Un’estate fa, which was awarded the Premio
Hemingway and Premio Selezione Rapallo. She writes for
magazines Sette, Io Donna and Style, and for Il Sole 24 Ore –
Domenica. She teaches creative writing on the IULM Masters
in Journalism.
Letteratu r a Città d i Co m o
I n ter n at io n al Pr ize
C o rt in a d ’A mpe zzo Pr ize
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Pages: 238
Publication: March 2012
Price: e 17,00
Bompiani
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Pages: 192
Publication: April 2014
Price: e 17,00
13
Tinto Brass
Madame Pipì
Mauro Covacich
The Bride
La spo sa
A story of love and lies beyond
convention, hypocrisy and clichés
The first perturbing novel by one of the
masters of erotic cinema
The alibis in betrayal, the alibis in lies,
the alibis in weakness: where love hides
and madness nestles.
Does normality exist? And, if it does,
what is it? Is it possible to trace a line
between normality and abnormality
or is human nature none other than
the product of the permanent conflict
between these two spirits? And in all
this what is the role of love, passion
and Eros? And, finally, what is the
relationship between love and madness?
How far can one legitimately go for love
and what is the threshold beyond which
one can no longer call love love, we have
to call it madness? These are the themes
that Tinto Brass tackles in his first
novel, inspired by the plot of a film he is
making shortly.
Seventeen stories full of passion for life,
springing from the recesses of a normality
that, when observed closely, is often
extraordinary.
Two strangers waiting to shoot during
a human safari. An artist dressed like
a bride hitch-hiking across Europe.
A young priest, unaware of his future as
pope, in a dramatic struggle against desire.
The attacks carried out in a supermarket
by a quiet family man obsessed with
explosives. The vicissitudes of a heart
T i n t o Br a s s
Mauro Covacich
born in Milan in 1933, he made his debut as director in 1963 with
Chi lavora è perduto. Among the many films by this master of
erotic cinema: Salon Kitty, La chiave (from the novel by Tanizaki
and starring Stefania Sandrelli), Miranda, Paprika and L’uomo
che guarda.
was born in Trieste in 1965. He has published various books
of fiction including: Storia di pazzi e di normali (Theoria 1993,
Laterza 2007), Anomalie (Mondadori 1998, 2001), L’amore
contro (Mondadori 2001 and Einaudi 2009), A perdifiato
(Mondadori 2003, Einaudi 2005), Fiona (Einaudi 2005 and
Bompiani
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Pages: 144
Publication: October 2014
Price: e 13,00
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removed from one life and on its way to
another. A man who has decided to share
his home with a pack of wolves. Real
events blended with amazing inventions
and short autobiographical digressions,
like teaching a nephew how to play
Frisbee: a lesson that touches on the
regretful sterility of a whole generation
who chose personal ambition over
procreation. La sposa is one long stream
of thoughts about today; the same that for
many years has characterized the writing of
Mauro Covacich since Anomalie in 1998.
2011), Trieste sottosopra (Laterza 2006), Prima di sparire
(Einaudi 2008 and 2010), A nome tuo (Einaudi 2011) and
L’esperimento (Einaudi 2013). He is also the author of a
video-installation L’umiliazione delle stelle (Buziol - Einaudi Magazzino d’Arte Moderna Roma 2010).
Pages: 192
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 16,00
15
Mauro Covacich
Anomalies
Margherita D’Amico
Seven of Us
A n o ma li e
S ETTE D I NOI
For the first time with Bompiani
Released simultaneously with its ideal
narrative follow-up: La Sposa (trade
edition)
A tailored, poetic style that tells the
intense stories of uncommon characters,
extreme in their way of coping with life.
Eleven stories about extreme, anomalous
situations: a group of boys playing a
basketball game in Sarajevo; the final
memories of a sniper; a man who decides
to seal his eyes with scotch tape in order
not to see and to fully comprehend the
sensations of the blind woman he loves;
a group of youngsters who turn their
pure, moral respectability into the most
tremendous of perversions.
Mauro Covacich
was born in Trieste in 1965. He has published various books
of fiction including: Storia di pazzi e di normali (Theoria 1993,
Laterza 2007), Anomalie (Mondadori 1998, 2001), L’amore
contro (Mondadori 2001 and Einaudi 2009), A perdifiato
(Mondadori 2003, Einaudi 2005), Fiona (Einaudi 2005 and
Bompiani
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16
Life and its surprises, its equilibrium rocking,
lacking, regained. Seven stories, seven
fairytales for adults.
A writer and a journalist, Margherita
D’Amico is back to fiction after years of
documentaries and inquiries.
There is a life that is different from
the one we normally live: a life that, in
exceptional moments, brings us face to
face with the sensitivity, the enchantment
and the mysteries that recall a different
world. These are the moments when our
lives are at a turning point: tiny, barely
whispered revolutions.
Sette di noi tells the stories of seven
ordinary people (a smithy encouraged by
his wife to get back the credit he is due; an
ex ballerina touched by the gentle wave of
her past; a girl faced with a tough choice;
an old landowner and a secret son...).
Seven ordinary people who finally get in
touch with the sense of their existence.
Seven stories that speak about us all and
the mystery of our lives.
M a rgher i t a D ’ A m i c o
2011), Trieste sottosopra (Laterza 2006), Prima di sparire
(Einaudi 2008 and 2010), A nome tuo (Einaudi 2011) and
L’esperimento (Einaudi 2013). He is also the author of a
video-installation L’umiliazione delle stelle (Buziol - Einaudi Magazzino d’Arte Moderna Roma 2010).
Pages: 160
Publication: Spring 2015
Price: e 12,00
journalist, translator for the theatre, author for the radio and
dramatist, has written novels and short stories for adults and
youngsters.
Bompiani
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Pages: 144
Publication: June 2014
Price:
e 16,00
17
Maurizio De Giovanni
Ferdinando Is Back Home
Federica De Paolis
Rewind
F erd i na ndo torna a c a s a
A renowned crime writer’s debut with his
first non-crime novel
Terminally ill geologist Ferdinando
Esposito lands at Capodichino Airport. He
was born in Naples but has been away for
more than four decades. He loathes his
hometown which according to his studies
will be eaten up by lava from the Vesuvio
volcano the day after his arrival.
The taxi driver he picks out of the throng
at the arrivals is a nondescript guy, as
chatty and intrusive as many others.
They will be spending all the day before
the impending disaster together. That
long, special day is bound to change
Ferdinando’s life, his relationship with
his town – and may well change Naples’
destiny too.
Three different continents. Three
protagonists who tell their love stories. In
the first, Zeno meets Talila, a mysterious
woman who will change the course of his
life; in the second, it is Talila who falls in
love with Rocco, an artist as tormented
as dangerous, who will make her plunge
into a spiral of jealousy; in the third,
Rocco is overwhelmed with passion for
Ana who will lead him into drug-filled
self-destruction. The author seems to be
warning the reader: in all love stories we
run the risk of being overwhelmed by the
force of our passion and the burden of the
stories that our loved ones experienced
before we met them.
F eder i c a D e P a o l i s
Maurizio De Giovanni
Born in 1958 in Naples where he currently lives, in 2005 he won
a contest for debut crime writers with a story set in Naples in the
Thirties, featuring commissario Ricciardi, who was to become
the main character in a series of successful novels published by
Love is an incessant battle against the
burden of the past.
Einaudi Stile Libero. In 2012 Mondadori published the first book
in a new series set in modern-day Naples featuring ispettore
Lojacono.
after reviewing films for specialised periodicals and writing
dialogues for the dubbing of films, in 2008 she began teaching
screenwriting at the European Institute of Design. She also
writes on the Sunday supplement of “Liberazione” and has
published Lasciami andare (2006) and Via di qui (2008) with
Fazi Publishers and Ti ascolto (2011) with Bompiani.
Foreign rights for Ti ascolto sold to:
Grasset (France), Siruela (Spain), Knaus (Germany),
Troubador (UK)
D e Giovanni’s p re vious nov el s so ld
m ore than 200 000 co pies alt o gether.
The author is translated in: France; Germany; Great Britain;
Spain; Russia; Denmark; US.
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Pages: 148
Publication: 2015
Price:
e 16,00
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Pages: 322
Publication: November 2014
Price: e 18,00
19
Luca Doninelli
Make Sure this Road Never Ends
Mario Fortunato
Berlin Voices
F a’ c he ques ta s tra da non fi ni s c a mai
Le vo ci d i Berl in o
Judas and Jesus: a great tale of friendship
Judas comes from the world of the dead
to tell us about his life with Jesus and the
reasons beyond his betrayal. It was not an act
of cowardice but the result of two visions of
the world that were incompatible in the heart
of a limitless friendship. One can understand
this by reading carefully the Gospel: the
growing friendship between Judas Iscariot
and Jesus despite their radically different
points of view; a friendship that not even
betrayal managed to destroy. Judas liked
legality and harmony, Jesus liked exceptions
and brought about war. Judas is a devoted
Jew, a rational man who betrays Jesus in
the hope of saving him from the wrath of
the people and, above all, from his “alleged”
madness, entrusting his fate to the Law of
Moses through a regular trial. Only after
carrying out the gesture does Judas begins
understand the enormity of his error and
the horror that will enter the world with his
opening that door. Nevertheless the last
word is yet to be pronounced: not even the
world’s darkness can cancel the reality of the
affection that bound the two together.
L u c a D o n i n ell i
was born in 1956. In 1978 he meets Giovanni Testori who
encourages him to write his first book Intorno a una lettera
di Santa Caterina (1981). His works of fiction include I due
fratelli (1990), La revoca (1992), Le decorose memorie (1995),
Talk show (1996), La nuova era (1999), Tornavamo dal mare
(2004), La polvere di Allah (2006). He teaches narrative
The portrait of a city through hundreds
of unexpected interwoven stories. Like
Dubliners, a mosaic that tells of one single
protagonist: Life, in a city
From 1929 to today, through a series of
real events, the author reconstructs the
history of Berlin, “a city that is not but is
constantly becoming”, starting from the
autobiographical memoir of his first trip to
Berlin, at the age of 28, shortly after losing
a friend. The Wall is still there; he stays
on the Western side; then he moves over
to the East; he meets S.; spends one night
with him at great risk since his permit has
expired; but then he manages to get back
by falsifying the date on his papers.
Isherwood and Auden, Hitler and the
Reichstag Fire, Thomas Mann’s two sons
who left Germany in ’34 and returned
in ’45, the fall of the Wall told through
the experience of a scientist who for
professional reasons has the chance to
go often to the East and one day decides
to remain there (on the very eve of the
fall!), up until 2011, with the city’s latest
architectural and urban (and social)
transformations.
M a r i o F o rt u n a t o
ethnography at the Università Cattolica of Milan; this
experience has inspired the volume Cattedrali (2011) and the
collective project Le nuove meraviglie di Milano – of which the
first three volumes have been published. Among the prizes he won:
1992 Premio Selezione Campiello, 1995 Premio Super Grinzane
Cavour, 2000 Premio Grinzane Cavour, 2000 Finalist Premio Strega
has published the following books with Bompiani: Luoghi
naturali, Immigrato (together with Salah Methnani), I giorni
innocenti della guerra, (in 2007, finalist in the Premio Strega
and winner of the Premio Mondello and Super Mondello – Cittá
di Palermo), Quelli che ami non muoiono and Allegra Street.
His other titles are: Il primo cielo, Sangue, Passaggi Paesaggi,
L’arte di perdere peso, Amore, romanzi e altre scoperte, L’amore
rimane and Certi pomeriggi non passano mai.
Rights for Salviamo Firenze
Sold to: Britzer Hufeisen (Germany)
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Pages: 144
Publication: August 2014
Price: e 12,00
Bompiani
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Pages: 192
Publication: March 2014
Price: e 17,00
21
Dario Franceschini
The Immaterial Occupations
of Sebastiano Delgado
Fausta Garavini
Monsù Desiderio’s Lives
Le vite d i M o n sù D e sider io
Mes ti eri i m m ateri a li di Seba s ti a no Delgado
A lone man busy working on the desires
of lonely men. A short novel on the
deepest needs of the spirit.
The protagonist of this short novel is
Sebastiano Delgado. We know little about
him. The author gives us no clues, just his
name. Instead, he describes with care and
amusement the idea that suddenly strikes
Delgado one night. While he is tossing
and turning in his double bed, thinking
how nice it would be to have a woman
at his side, he gets the intuition that is
to change his life. How is it possible, he
asks himself, that in a world that takes
care of satisfying every minimum material
request, market doesn’t offer anything for
the needs of the spirit? And so Delgado
transforms what seemed nothing more
than an eccentricity into a global success.
Through his Agency he creates thirteen
Immaterial Occupations that answer
our most intimate desires, those little,
secret wishes that we all nurture but
that are forgotten in the hubbub of our
daily lives: like receiving the warmth of a
caress when outside everything seems too
hostile.
The fictional biography of a mysterious
artist written in a terse, refined, rich
language that brings to life 17th century
Rome.
Roman Prize in Chambery. In 2007, with Bompiani, he published
La follia improvvisa di Ignazio Rando and in 2011 Daccapo.
He is the current Minister of Heritage and Cultural Activities.
a scholar of french and provençal literature, translator and
writer, has taught at the faculty of letters in florence university.
she is the author of the unabridged translation of Saggi di
Montaigne (1966) and numerous critical works including
L’Empèri dòu Soulèu (1967), I sette colori del romanzo (1973), Il
paese delle finzioni (1978), La casa dei giochi (1980), Parigi e
Dario Franceschini
(Ferrara 1958) published with Bompiani in 2006 the novel Nelle
vene quell’acqua d’argento, translated by Gallimard in France,
where it was appraised by the critics and won the Premier
François de Nomé was born into a poor
family in Metz in 1593. His father dies
when he is still a baby and his mother is
forced to send him away in the hope that
he will find a trade. Once in Rome, the
boy joins an atelier and gets involved in the
tumultuous life of the city, experiencing
passion, discovering sex and hanging out
not only with the artists but also with the
scum of the underworld. Ruins become
his favourite iconographic subject. In
1610 he moves to Naples where at last his
paintings are noticed and appreciated. He
also seems to have found love: Isabella,
who finally manages to give him a sense of
completeness. But that peace does not last
long: Italy is not bringing him happiness,
so François decides to leave the country,
disappearing forever.
“The shadowy charm of nostalgia... and an
accurate representation of the times.”
Elisabetta Rasy, Il Sole 24 Ore
F a u s t a G a r av i n i
provincia (1990), Mostre e chimere (1991). Editor of Paragone
- Letteratura since 1972, she has published various articles in
the magazine. Among her novels Gli occhi dei pavoni (1979),
Diletta Costanza (1996), Uffizio delle tenebre (1998), In nome
dell’imperatore (2008), Diario delle solitudini (2011) and Storie
di donne (2012).
premio selezione campiello 2014
Rights of Nelle vene quell’acqua d’argento sold to:
Gallimard (France)
Illustrated with colour plates
Rights of her novel Diario delle solitudini have been sold to:
UK (Troubador)
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Pages: 96
Publication: November 2013
Price: e 9,00
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Pages: 324
Publication: February 2014
Price: e 22,00
23
Antonella Gatti Bardelli
Margò
Stefano Jacini
You Weren’t Born Bold
Tu n o n n asce st i au d ace
“I choose to live every day with you beside me.
Because there are many Margó’s out there with
whom I should share my experience, many
mothers in need of my words of comfort.”
Roberta and her daughter Margó have
travelled together the most difficult paths
of a life full of twists. After her parents’
separation the girl becomes acquainted with
addiction and gets involved with the wrong
kind of man. Just when the horror seems to
be over, one night an overdose, and Roberta
finds herself having to cope with the greatest
suffering a mother can imagine. Margó is the
story of a woman, her attempts to understand
her daughter, her struggle to save her. Even
when it no longer seems important, Roberta
never gives up; despite being thwart by
nightmares and horrific visions, she finds
the strength to meet with other mothers
who have experienced the same pain and
through their stories she discovers the void
that was destroying her daughter and comes
to understand her desperate choice. A trip
to Kenya is to mark the start of a new life for
Roberta, when an apparently inexplicable
coincidence fills the gap between mother and
daughter, bringing them together at last.
A n t o n ell a G a tt i B a rdell i
was born in Trieste in 1969. She lived and worked in New York
for several years, drawing inspiration for her first novel, Il cielo
capovolto (Bompiani 2012). She works in theatre and for some
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An ironic novel set in a house inhabited by
lovers and memories capable of linking two
world wars
A diary rediscovered, a father with
important friends, a ferocious satire on
past and contemporary political ways
The secrets of a diary interrupted on the
eve of WWI, the ghosts of an aristocratic
villa during the final months of WWII, the
ranting of a mysterious nosey parker who
lives on a chandelier. Evoking fifty years
of European disasters, in a light, mocking
tone. The protagonist is an indolent
gentleman involved with two lovers,
quarrelsome evacuees who have taken
over his house for life, an assault priest,
and clumsy subversives who challenge the
ringleaders of Salò.
Stef a n o J a c i n i
time now has collaborated with Pino Roveredo’s Compagnia
Instabile.
Pages: 144
Publication: March 2014
Price: e 11,00
lives in Milan where he was born. After graduating in History of
Philosophy, he worked in several Milanese publishing houses
including Sugar and Il Saggiatore. He founded the
Il Formichiere Edizioni which he directed for ten years. He is a
member of the Edt of Turin and writes regularly for “Il Giornale
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della Musica”. Among his published novels: Le Svetlana (2005)
on the High Fidelity neurosis and Il collezionista di suoni
(2009), both set in the same “city that isn’t there” as Dio e
monsieur Divan.
Pages: 224
Publication: May 2014
Price: e 13,00
25
Francesca Lancini
Family Weapons
Tony Laudadio
Like a Nail in The Wall
A R MI DI F AMI GL IA
C o me u n ch io d o n el mu r o
Secrets and lies of a respectable Italian
family whose life and interests revolve
around a weapon factory.
All the members of the Vento family
get together for the first time in years.
Viviana, the mother, is the managing
director of the family company that
produces weapons. She manages
sentimental issues as if they were
company reports. Vittoria, her eldest
daughter, is a TV showgirl always in need
of attention. Virginia, head of marketing,
sells arms and feigns empathy. Viola,
thirty-year-old dubbing actress, is
pregnant and has recently found out her
fiancé is being unfaithful. Giacomo, the
father, looks on distractedly from the
safety of his laboratory. Valdemaro, the
grandfather, spends all his time shooting
from the veranda. They all have one
thing in common: a secret to keep.
Even lawyers can be guilty.
Giustino Salvato is a criminal defense
lawyer, hot-tempered and at times violent
but highly respected. No-one knows of
his dark side: he is the go-between for the
Camorra and the payment of protection
money. The novel opens when Giustino
is offered the case of the murder of
another lawyer whose widow is among the
Francesca Lancini
Tony Laudadio
a former model, now an actress and tv presenter, is the author of
Senza Tacchi (With No Heels. Bompiani, 2011), a novel about the
insanities of the fashion world.
studied with Vittorio Gassman and went straight on to work in
theatre with Federico Tiezzi, Arnoldo Foà and Leo De Berardinis.
In 1993 he began a lasting collaboration with Toni Servillo,
playing in Zingari, Misantropo, False Confidenze, Tartufo,
Sabato Domenica e Lunedì. In the same period he founded the
compagnia Onorevole Teatro Casertano with Enrico Ianniello,
produced his own shows and researched contemporary theatre.
suspects. Giustino agrees to meet her only
to discover she is an ex girlfriend of his,
Giorgia. Giorgia immediately pleas guilty:
she killed her husband out of jealousy.
Giustino doesn’t want to take on the case
but at the same time he feels attracted to
her and asks for some time to decide. Soon
things precipitate: Giustino is not only
guilty of mediating for protection money...
In those same years heworked with Andrea Renzi with such
shows as Rosencrantz e Guildenstern are dead, Pinocchio, Magic
People Show and Pinter’s Betrayal with Nicoletta Braschi. For the
cinema he has worked with such directors as Marco Risi, Paolo
Sorrentino and Nanni Moretti. Several of his plays were published
in the book Teatro Fuorilegge (Spartaco, 2010). He is to play the
leading role in Nanni Moretti’s next film.
Rights of her novel Senza Tacchi have been sold to:
Bulgaria (Scalino Ltd.), Serbia (Mono i Manjana)
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Pages: 240
Publication: May 2014
Price: e 17,00
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Pages: 368
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 18,00
27
Francesco Merlo Room 707
S T ANZA 7 0 7
Alessandro Mari
The Anonymous End
of Square Root
L’ANONIMA FINE D I R A D ICE QUA D R ATA
For a thief an encounter with a beautiful
woman is more dangerous than an
encounter with a police inspector
Even violence can be comical and noir
can flirt with sophisticated comedy: two
women kidnapped, a secret pro-Palestine
organization inspired by the world’s longest
ant, the dinoponera, Arab sheiks who pay
diamonds to caress European beauties,
a Sicilian delinquent who likes to apply
the rules of etiquette to his crimes and
his accomplice who only manages not to
stammer by reciting Dante. In Paris, in
Hotel Lutetia, in a room besieged by the
world’s secret services, a new literary genre
is born: the picaresque thriller.
Who are the new heroes of today’s
teenagers? A caustic blogger, an elusive
classmate, a mystery and a drama: a novel
about school and kids’ role models by
the author-revelation of Troppo umana
speranza.
Sixteen-year-old Sofia, a scathing blogger
who writes anonymously about what
happens at her school, is very good at
cataloguing her schoolmates: the bully, the
brainless beauty, the hypocrite. Only Radice
Quadrata (Square Root) eludes her: solitary,
F r a n c e s c o Merl o
a le s s a n dr o M a r i is a journalist. He has been writing since 2003 for “La Repubblica”
and before that he worked for “Il Corriere della Sera”.
was born in 1980 in Busto Arsizio, near Milan. He graduated
with a thesis on Thomas Pynchon. He has published Troppo
umana speranza (Feltrinelli, 2011, Viareggio-Rèpaci Prize), the
ironic, always busy writing in his mysterious
notebooks. Sofia decides to follow him and
finds out that he spends his afternoons
sneaking into the cellars of council houses.
What is he up to down there? A class
outing to the cinema, a serious accident and
an authentic act of heroism induce Sofia to
reflect on who Radice Quadrata really is.
“Alessandro Mari is capable of expressing
himself with the strength of classic writing
that is never academic.”
Gad Lerner
digital novel Banduna (Feltrinelli, 2012) and Gli alberi hanno il
tuo nome (Feltrinelli, 2013), finalist at the 2014 Bottari Lattes
Grinzane Prize.
Troppo umana speranza is sold in France, Spain, Latin America,
Hungary.
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Pages: 192
Publication: March 2014
Price: e 16,00
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Pages: 292
Publication: February 2015
Price: e 13,00
29
Candida Morvillo
Stars Aren’t Far Away Giorgio Montefoschi
The Fragile Beauty of the Day
L E S T E L L E NON SONO L ONT ANE
La fr ag ile b ellezza del g io r n o
The debut novel of a brilliant journalist who
writes about fame, sex and power mingling
in a dangerous way
Carmela is a genuine beauty from southern
Italy; poor, ambitious, like lots of other
teenagers she dreams of becoming a TV star.
That’s why she changes her name to Astrid and
sets off for Rome, where, as cunning as she is,
she quickly finds her way to success. In order
to win over an important role in a TV show she
must decide whether to accept the humiliating
compromises demanded by the world of
entertainment; she attends the birthday party
of the powerful presidente, a politician-TV
tycoon; she has to confront the mysterious
behaviour of her boyfriend Giangi, a rich, spoilt
golden boy. Her rivals for the TV show are the
vulgar Gloria Green, at the end of her career,
and the desperately young and avid countess
Beatrice Saint Bon di Moncada. Moving from
one experience to another, Astrid goes from
enthusiasm to disgust, regretting the simple life
her hard-working parents taught her.
“An investigative report written as a novel using
fiction as a weapon.”
Il Corriere della Sera
C a n d i d a M o r v i ll o
born in Sorrento, is a columnist for “Il Corriere della Sera”. She
has been editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine “Novella 2000”
and has worked for “A”, “Vanity Fair” and before that “Oggi”
and “Il Mattino”. With Rizzoli she has published La Repubblica
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A well-renown author, Premio Strega in
1994, is back with a moving story about
love and regret
What the remains of the day do mean to a
man who has loved much, betrayed much,
and is trying to confront himself at last?
Just one year ago, 65-year-old Ernesto lost
his wife, whom he loved dearly. He has
two grown-up sons, both married, and two
grandchildren of whom he is very fond.
Ever since his wife passed away, Ernesto, a
successful novelist, hasn’t written a word.
His is a kind of refusal of life. But he does
worry a great deal about his sons’ affairs
– following their complicated lives, with
children growing up and lovers coming to
upset the matrimonial ménage. Then he
meets a friend of his daughter-in-law’s.
A very beautiful, sensual woman, twenty
years his junior. A love chance that calls
into question everything. Will life begin
again? Will Ernesto forget Carla?
“Montefoschi surrenders to the invisible.
He asks us to believe in the invisible.”
Massimo Onofri, Avvenire
G i o rg i o M o n tef o s c h i
delle veline, vita vezzi e vizi delle ragazze della tivvù dagli anni
cinquanta ai giorni nostri. In July 2006 she was awarded the
Ischia International Angelo Rizzoli Prize for Journalism as the best
under-35 journalist for the print media and press agencies.
Pages: 308
Publication: February 2014
Price: e 17,50
(1946) is the author of fifteen novels. His books include La casa
del padre (Bompiani, 1994, Premio Strega), Il segreto dell’estrema
felicità (2001), La sposa (2003), Lo sguardo del cacciatore (2003),
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L’idea di perderti (2006), Le due ragazze con gli occhi verdi (2009),
and Eva (2011).
Pages: 224
Publication: February 2014
Price: e 17,00
31
Roberto Pazzi
The Transparency of Darkness
Sergio Claudio Perroni
Renuntio Vobis
L a tra s p a renz a del bui o
A novel evocative of Giorgio Bassani’s
Gli occhiali d’oro
A delicate story of homosexual love
When 65-year-old university professor
Giovanni meets 30-year-old Luca from
Ferrara in a sauna in Verona, it’s love at
first sight; for a whole week they keep
in touch by cell phone, relating their life
stories and planning future meetings. At
first Giovanni is incapable of remaining
faithful and lives a fleeting moment of
deceit with Pierre, a Parisian designer.
When one of his students tries to seduce
him, Giovanni rejects him: his relationship
with Luca has evolved into true love. But
maybe love is never enough. Luca asks
Giovanni for a loan, he refuses and Luca
– who really needs that money – goes in
search of his ex. On his way back he is
involved in a fatal accident.
Over the years Giovanni remains anchored
to the memory of Luca, trying to overcome
his feelings of guilt through writing.
By having the characters in Renuntio Vobis
speak exclusively through the verses of the Old
and New Testament, Sergio Claudio Perroni
recounts the clash between XX, high religious
authority who has just abdicated from his role,
and a mysterious visitor who accuses him of
betraying his mission as a guide and example
for the faithful. A dialectic duel set in a remote
Benedictine monastery that, after revealing
Strega. The most recent of his eighteen novels are Dopo primavera
(Frassinelli 2008), Mi spiacerà morire per non vederti più (Corbo
2010) and D’amore non esistono peccati (Barbera 2012). Bompiani has published La stanza sull’acqua (2012) and L’erede (2013).
For many years a columnist for “Il Corriere della Sera”, he now
writes for “QN ”in Italy and “The New York Times”.
lives and works in Taormina, Sicily. Bompiani has published
Non muore nessuno (2007), Leonilde, storia eccezionale di una
donna normale (2010) and Nel ventre (2012).
The author was twice finalist
at the Strega Prize
A fo r m id a ble w ork of selecti o n
fr o m the o ver thirty tho u s a nd verses
that m ake the ti meles s bea u ty
an d tr u th o f the B ib le
Rights of his novel La stanza sull’acqua have been sold to:
Poland (Wydawnictwo Literackie)
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the divine nature of the visitor, turns into a
kind of trial. A “God versus Joseph Ratzinger”
trial whose protagonists could be two erudite
scholars challenging each other on the theme
of responsibility of he who takes on the role
of pastor of the people; or perhaps the two
souls of a renunciative pope confronting his
conscience with extreme consequences.
Whoever they belong to, the voices echoing
around the walls of the monastery create an
intriguing tale where the biblical word is both
a sublime expressive instrument and a very upto-date spiritual paradigm.
Serg i o Cl a u d i o Perr o n i
R o b ert o P a z z i
poet, novelist and journalist, lives in Ferrara where he taught
in high school and university and now gives courses in creative
writing. His novels have been translated into twenty-six languages
and he is considered one of the most original, visionary Italian
writers. He won such important literary prizes as the Premio
Selezione Campiello, the superprize Grinzane Cavour, the Montale,
the Procida Elsa Morante and has twice been finalist in the Premio
Renuntio Vobis is an invitation to keep
alive the memory of the Absolute within
life’s limits, where memory is the remedy
for nothingness.
Pages: 288
Publication: April 2014
Price: e 19,00
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Pages: 120
Publication: February 2015
Price: e 14,00
33
Aurelio Picca
A Day of Joy
Aurelio Picca
Via Volta della Morte
u n g iorno di gi oi a
An eccentric, charming mother who could
do anything for love
“Aurelio Picca writes with the same ease
with which the rest of us breathe. Un
giorno di gioia took me back to the dark
years of my childhood where the grownups
were giants and I was a dwarf held
hostage.”
Niccolò Ammaniti
Tilda and Jean are mother and son.
After the death of her husband, Tilda
becomes a thief and a robber. Hers is an
extravagant family damaged by money
issues and passionate fights. Mother and
son are forever on the run and share the
same difficulties in telling reality apart
from dreams. Jean’s life is by no means
simple but he has to make place to his
inescapable bond with Tilda: a mother, a
woman, a criminal living in a castle with a
tiger called Asia and a treasure called Jean.
“The thriller we were waiting for.”
Camillo Langone, Il Foglio
“This book has a primary, essential merit:
that of telling a story that is invented but
who knows how many times it has been
real and will be again.”
“Erotic combustion laid down in a lucid,
incisive prose, in which facts and streams
of blood flow.”
Under Federico da Montefeltro’s palace
in Urbino the blood of a double homicide
flows. The victims attended the university
college; the violence seems to emanate
from the face of the Urbino Duke painted
by Piero della Francesca. Piero only
depicted the left side of his face; the other,
scarred side was to conceal secrets – his
and those of his city: Federico, enlightened
prince and bloody warrior, is still today the
patron of Urbino. In the heart of the ideal
city, his palace shines and dominates.
A u rel i o P i c c a
was born near Roma. He lives in the country. Per punizione was
his poetic debut (1990), followed by the short stories La schiuma
and I racconti dell’eternità. In 1995 he wrote the novel L’Esame
di Maturità (Giunti, Rizzoli 2001), and then I mulatti (Giunti),
then Tuttestelle, Bellissima, Sacrocuore, Via Volta della Morte,
Se la fortuna è nostra (Rizzoli), L’Italia è morta, io sono l’Italia
and Addio (Bompiani). He writes reviews and contributions about
cinema, art, literature.
Fo r the f ir st t ime in po cket ed it io n
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Pages: 240
Publication: March 2014
Price: e 17,50
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Pages: 176
Publication: November 2014
Price: e 9,00
35
Lidia Ravera
The Expired
Pino Roveredo
Dancing with Cecilia
G l i s c a duti
b all an d o co n ce cil ia
Four protagonists, aged between 25 and
60, talking about their obsession with
youthfulness. An inexhaustible desire to
make their own choices and live life to
the full, even over the sixties.
After her success with Piangi pure,
Lidia Ravera returns to the difficulty of
getting old in a world that only values
novelty, youth, renewal and replacing.
This time she throws the reader into
a very near imaginary future. Italy is
governed by a single party, with a Lider
Máximo, and these laws regarding the
fate of the different generations have
been approved:
- at 60 everyone has to retire to an old
people’s home which may be more or
less luxurious according to one’s social
class;
- at 25 all women are “ invited” to have
a child;
- after 45 everyone has to change their
wardrobe and lifestyle;
- relationships between people with
an age difference of over 10 years are
strictly forbidden.
Roveredo goes back to the universe and
poetry of Mandami a dire, 2005 Campiello
Prize, where mad, weird, outcast people
give us poignant lessons in love
Eterna ragazza, Le seduzioni dell’inverno (finalist at the 2008
Premio Strega ), Il dio zitto, La guerra dei figli and A Stromboli.
She has written for cinema, theatre and television. She
collaborates with “Il fatto quotidiano” and “Donna Moderna”.
Piangi Pure, published by Bompiani in 2013, inspired the
successful show “Nuda Proprietà” starring Lella Costa.
was born in 1954 in Trieste into a family of artisans: his father
was a shoemaker. After various experiences (and climbs),
he worked for years in a factory. Street operator, writer and
journalist – he is a contributor to “Il Piccolo” in Trieste – he
is member of various humanitarian organisations working
in favour of those in need. Among his works: Schizzi di vino
L i d i a R a v er a
became famous with her debut novel Porci con le ali (Pigs with
Wings, 1976), manifesto of the generation of the ’70s, a real cult
book, with over two and a half million copies sold, re-printed
in Tascabili Bompiani. She has written 27 works of fiction, the
most recent: Maledetta gioventù, Né Giovani né vecchi, In quale
nascondiglio del cuore, La festa è finita, Sorelle, Il freddo dentro,
Cecilia is 96 years old, many of which
spent in a psychiatric hospital. She is
quarrelsome, solitary, bizarre. But maybe
all she needs is for someone to recognise
her as a person. When someone goes to
visit her to keep her company and offers
her a chocolate, she softens. She tells
them how she worked as a shop assistant
in a cake shop earning 70 cents a week.
She tells them about her great love,
Mario Beneval, giving out real “lessons in
affection”.
The two – Cecilia and her curious visitor
– start a real and metaphoric dance which
brings them step by step into another
dimension. On the notes of that dance,
for a moment they each relive the life they
were entitled to and they did not have the
chance to live.
P i n o R o v ered o
in brodo (2000), Ballando con Cecilia (2000). Bompiani has
published the collection of short stories Mandami a dire
(2005, Premio Campiello, Premio Predazzo, Premio Anmil,
Premio “Il campione”), Capriole in salita (2006), Caracreatura
(2007), Attenti alle rose (2009), La melodia del corvo (2010)
and Mio padre votava Berlinguer (2012).
C ampiell o Pr ize 2005
Rights of previous novels sold to: France (Albin Michel);
Greece (Ekdoseis Aiolos); Romania (Rao); Russia (AST);
Slovenia (Mladika)
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Pages: 184
Publication: January 2015
Price e 17,50
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Pages: 154
Publication: March 2014
Price: e 15,00
37
Wilson Saba
Sole & Baleno
Angela and Julie Scipioni
Iris & Lily
(Tr an sl at io n b y C arl o Pr o sper i)
A new edition of the novel nominated
for the 2006 Strega Prize updated by the
author
“A coming-of-age novel of sentimental
education, written in a confident, fresh
and blunt style.”
Elio Pagliarani
The story opens and closes in Sardinia,
but is mostly set in Bologna during an
extremely hot summer. The protagonist
is a very self-centred student of Classic
Letters who longs to escape from a
repetitive life divided between his studies
and his family but probably lacks the
courage to do so. The only person who
keeps him there in the city and in the
same old group of friends is his pal Paco,
his childhood hero. For a while it’s just
music, sex, drugs, exams and fights. Then
along comes Teresa, and with her Love.
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alternating chapters through the voices
of their counterparts – first as children,
then as adolescents, and finally as young
women – living in an environment
marked by poverty and neglect, abuse and
favoritism, Catholicism and feminism. The
email exchanges, a second level narrative
which opens the novel and continues at
intervals throughout the story, deal with
Iris’ and Lily’s reactions to their divergent
versions of the past.
A n gel a a n d J u l i e S c i p i o n i
Wilson Saba
was born in Sardinia. He graduated in Letters and Philosophy
at Bologna University. He lives and works in Rome, where (from
1999 to 2005) he appeared in various films for TV and the big
screen. After graduating he wrote his first essay, the result of
an interdisciplinary research: a monograph on Antonin Artaud
During a pre-Christmas email exchange
spanning the Atlantic, Iris and Lily
Capotosti begin reminiscing about their
past growing up as sisters during the
Sixties and Seventies in Upstate New York,
two out of twelve children born to the hotblooded Italo-American Carlo Capotosti
and his mild-mannered Missourian wife,
Betty Whitacre Capotosti. Memories
are stirred, imaginations stimulated, and
the sisters plunge into the stories, told in
(Il Punto Fosforoso. Antonin Artaud e la cultura eterna,
Quodlibet). His first novel, Sole & Baleno (2005), was selected
for the 2006 Strega Prize and the same year won the Premio
Piccola Editoria di Qualità.
Pages: 272
Publication: October 2014
Price: e 13,00
were born and raised in Rochester, New York. Angela has been
living Italy since the 1980s, where she has worked as a hotel
manager and consultant, and lives on the Ligurian coast. Julie
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currently resides in Upstate New York, where she works as a
communication strategist, and lives with her husband, Rick,
and their cat, Halo.
Pages: 1416
Publication: May 2014
Price: e 28,00
39
Nikola Savic
A Better Life
Raffaella Silvestri
The Distance from Helsinki
V i t a m i gli ore
La d ist an za d a H el sin k i
The story of a young boy leaving Belgrade
for Italy: how it feels to be uprooted, neither
here nor there, when your former world is
being changed by war.
“A strong, sincere novel: a world where
feelings still are worth something.”
Giancarlo de Cataldo
“An uncommon sensitivity.”
“Old Europe is still there.”
Taiye Selasi
Susanna Tamaro
Deki is a teenager when his family leaves
Belgrade for a small town in Northern Italy.
The move is very demanding for a young boy
who has to leave everything behind: his friends,
his habits, the comforting routine of living in
New Belgrade, a neighbourhood of tall, grey
buildings erected during Tito’s regime. He will
never stop feeling an overwhelming passion for
Ivana and the long, void, completely satisfying
afternoons spent fantasizing about future,
heroes, a possible life along with his friends.
That time is lost anyway, because the war is
coming and it will change the existences of all
his former companions.
“A writing that aims to the essential.”
Antonio Pennacchi
“A sophisticated writing telling about a
hidden pain.”
Taiye Selasi
“The story of two people who keep
distancing themselves and being reunited
in an unconventional way. Raffaella
Silvestri has built up and mastered the
story with true ability.”
Andrea De Carlo
N i k o l a S av i c
R a ff a ell a S i l v e s tr i
was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and came to live in Italy when
he was twelve. He graduated at the University of Bologna.
Married, he has one daughter and lives near Venice.
graduated at Cambridge University and worked in marketing
and communications.
Viola and Kimi meet in London when they
are both attending an English course and
they are both sixteen. She comes from Italy,
is lively and outspoken but she is nursing a
deep grief, her mother’s loss. Kimi comes
from Helsinki and keeps everything and
everybody at a distance: he is suffering from
a form of autism and seems to be his whole
self only when playing the piano. Incapable
of being really together, incapable of letting
go, they will spend years, till their thirties,
trying to get in touch, meeting and leaving
again.
T he winn er o f Mas ter piece , the fir st
ta le nt s h ow for writer s, b r oa d cas t
by It a li an tv RAI
Rights sold to to Serbia (Vukotic)
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Pages: 288
Publication: April 2014
Price: e 12,90
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Pages: 240
Publication: May 2014
Price: e 12,90
41
Giorgio Vigolo
Fantastic Rome
Mariolina Venezia
The Mechanical Fox
R o m a fa nta s ti c a
l a vo l pe me ccan ica
On the thirtieth anniversary of Giorgio
Vigolo’s death (1983-2013)
Giorgio Vigolo is one of the authors who
better understood the mysteries of Rome,
his birthplace, which he described with
such fervid imagination. In the story La
Virgilia, set in a gloomy nineteenth century
Rome, a young musician from the North,
lover of ancient music, especially that of the
Renaissance period, arrives in Rome to do
research. He is immediately caught up in
the strange atmosphere of the house where
he is staying, where echoes of a mysterious
music can be heard every evening. He also
meets an enigmatic monsignore, Gualdi, who
reads him a poem dedicated to a beautiful
fifteenth century courtesan named Virgilia.
The young man becomes obsessed by this
woman, whose mystery will be revealed
when, discovering an album of ancient music
and playing it on the organ, the sepulchre
where she lies at rest will open. The volume
also includes Il Buonavoglia and Arcobaleno
in bianco e nero.
Love turned into madness: a love story
shot through with noir
“I know what it feels like to kill a man.
I know because I did it. But no one would
believe me.”
One of the strongest voices of Italian fiction
now with Bompiani. Venezia won the 2007
Campiello SuperPrize with Been here a
thousand years (Mille anni che sto qui).
A woman tells about herself and the
burning passion for a younger man which
G i o rg i o V i g o l o
M a r i o l i n a Ve n e z i a
(1894-1983): poet, translator of Hölderlin and editor of the
critical edition of Belli, he has written for “Epoca” and Mario
Pannunzio’s “Il mondo” as a music critic.
born in Matera, lives in Rome. A writer and a screenwriter, she
published her former novels with Einaudi and Nottetempo. The
A n au th or Bompiani br ou ght to f ame:
L e notti ro man e, premio Bagu tt a 1960
42
Pages: 192
Publication: October 2013
Price: e 11,00
author won the 2007 Campiello SuperPrize with Mille anni che
sto qui (Einaudi).
The author’s previous novels have been translated in English;
French; Spanish; Catalan; German; Dutch; Czech; Chinese;
Korean; Hebrew; Greek; Polish; Portuguese; Russian; Serbian;
Sweden; Turkish and Hungarian
E di ted by Magd a Vigilan te
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is devouring her; a passion that leaves its
mark in a grey existence, imprisoned as she
is in an arranged, loveless marriage. We
follow her as witnesses and accomplices
into the labyrinth of her mind. As
though peeping through the keyhole, we
watch erotic games which step beyond
boundaries in a thrilling mess of feelings.
Mariolina Venezia tells about a descent
into the living hell of a crime without
chastisement. Her precise style, as sharp
as a blade, dissects events and characters
baring them to the bone, in a cold,
passion-driven tango of love and death.
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Publication: April 2014
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43
MO D E R N
C L ASSICS
Alberto Moravia
Agostino
MO D E R N
C L ASSICS
Alberto Moravia,
Andrea Andermann
Going Elsewhere
A n d an d o altr o ve
When Alberto Moravia returned to Rome
in 1944 along with the allied troops, he
practically started over as an author, or,
indeed, started at that very moment. The
short novel Agostino was the masterpiece
that enabled him to gain the recognition
of both critics and public. Agostino is the
story of a sexual initiation. On one side, a
thirteen-year-old boy who is still a child,
on the other his widowed mother who
is stilll radiant and wants to live life to
the full. During a holiday at the seaside
the relationship between the two breaks
down and is wracked with anxiety. The
boy has to reach a real crisis , a trauma,
in order to pick up the pieces and start
afresh, making sense of his existence.
Agostino marked Moravia’s return to
proper fiction after his surrealist and
satirical evasions and outbursts, granting
him his first literary prize.
20 years of travels in Mongolia, Yemen
and Africa
“Mongolia is a woman dressed in green
with a crown of white clouds around
her head.”
Alberto Moravia
Over twenty years exploring the least
known parts of the world, recounted by
Alberto Moravia with the images of Andrea
Andermann.
A large format book, with illustrations
in colour. The experiences of two artists
and travellers in the most remote parts of
Mongolia, Yemen and Africa.
Alberto Moravia and Andrea Andermann
were travelling companions for over
twenty years. From these explorations
the writer has brought his own variations
on many different themes, drawn from
those profound experiences in distant
places, while the director his photographic
impressions: two views on the world
and on worlds, that together make up an
unusual, unitary account. Five hundred
pages divided between intense images and
moving narration.
A n dre a A n der m a n n
who divides his life between theatre, television, opera and
cinema, realized several travel documentaries for the RAI in
the Seventies, together with Moravia and Flaiano. He has
devoted a lot of time and passion to proposing opera in
television.
New i n 2 014
A n ew tr ade pap er bac k ed ition
of the no vel Ago stin o,
fi rs t p ublished in 1944,
c elebratin g the 70 th an n iver sary .
Inc ludi ng reviews by Umb erto Saba
a nd Ca rlo Emilio Gadd a
a nd li thographies b y Ren ato Gu tt u so .
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Pages: 192
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 11,00
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Pages: 496
Publication: November 2014
Price: e 60,00
45
K I D S & MO R E
Chiara Carminati
Out of Focus
K I D S & MO R E
La mu cca vo l an te
F u o ri fuoc o
1914-1918. The story of a family told by a
bright young girl. Talking about war from
the viewpoint of one who doesn’t make it
“When war broke out we were all pleased”.
Jolanda known as Jole was already working
at the spinning-wheel at the age of thirteen
during the summer of 1914. It didn’t take
her long to understand and suffer for the
consequences of a conflict that sends the
men away and leaves the women alone.
Separated from her mother, traumatised by
the bombings, she and her sister will roam
the countryside looking for a grandmother
Paolo Di Paolo
The Flying Cow
that they never even knew to have.
Through the voice of Jole – a penetrating,
vivid first person narration – their
experiences are those of all the women
who stay out of the line of fire, far from
the front, blurred, almost invisible, while
History proceeds, ruthlessly. Thirteen
narrated images, like photos missing from
a family album, punctuate a narration
based on diaries, testimonies, reports and
documents.
From the author of Mandami tanta vita,
nominated for the 2013 Premio Strega
A cow swollen up like a balloon, the
mysterious disappearance of an elderly
schoolmistress: a light-hearted, poetic tale
on the weight of (white) lies
One morning in the schoolyard a corner
has been marked off by a strip of red and
white plastic. And the teacher forbids the
children to go outside during breaktime.
Leonardo is determined to investigate:
that evening, in the pouring rain, armed
with a torch and escorted by his dog
Macchia, he goes back to school and
discovers a cow blown up like a balloon.
Is it dead? The next day the cow isn’t
there. Where’s it gone? This mystery
runs parallel with another mystery –
the disappearance of dear Mistress
Pompelmo some years earlier. A whole
band of kids is determined to understand
why grown-ups go to so much trouble to
hide truth.
Paolo Di Paolo
Ch i a r a C a r m i n a t i
is the author of stories, poems and plays for children and
youngsters. She holds workshops and meetings to promote reading
in libraries, schools and bookshops. Specialised in the didactics
of poetry, she gives refresher courses for teachers and librarians,
in Italy and abroad. With the musicians of Linea Armonica, she
has realised performances of poetry and narrative that combine
words, music and images. Among her books L’estate dei segreti
(Einaudi Ragazzi), Rime chiaroscure (with Bruno Tognolini) and
Mare (Rizzoli), Parto (Panini), L’ultima fuga di Bach (rueBallu) and
the handbooks Fare poesia (Mondadori) and Perlaparola. Bambini e
ragazzi nelle stanze della poesia (Equilibri). In 2012 she received the
Andersen Prize as Best Author. Her website is www.parolematte.it.
was born in Rome in 1983. At the age of twenty he was
nominated for the Calvino and Campiello Giovani Awards.
He has edited collections of writings by Indro Montanelli
for BUR. Among his novels: Raccontami la notte in cui sono
nato (Perrone 2008, Feltrinelli UE 2014), Dove eravate tutti
(Feltrinelli 2011, Premio Mondello and Premio Vittorini) and
Mandami tanta vita (Feltrinelli 2013, nominated for Premio
Strega).
ill u str at io n s b y the au th o r
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fiction
Pages: 208
Publication: September 2014
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Pages: 96
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 11,00
47
Non-Fiction
Bompiani
CU R R E N T
ISSU E S
Francesca Borri
The War Inside
CU R R E N T
ISSU E S
l a g uerr a dentro
From one of the most turbulent frontlines a
testimony on war journalism with its sense
of precariousness and the struggle to get
sensational news at any cost
On 21st August 2013 a chemical arms attack
in the suburbs of Damascus reminds the
world of the existence of a war in Syria – a war
which has been going on for over two years.
Western intervention seems imminent, loads
of journalists rushing to the front line only to
vanish when Obama decides not to attack.
bFrancesca Borri spends months covering the
battle of Aleppo as a freelance reporter and
l’o n e st o po r co
soon realizes that she is caught up in a twofold
frontline: a war without rules but also the
daily battle with editors and other journalists
where cynicism and competitiveness abound.
A journey through war but also through the
mechanisms by which war accounts are
constructed and often distorted. An author
whose articles of exposure have triggered off
widespread debate in the press and on the web.
“The War Inside is a brave book, it’s the
war smelled seen represented through the
eyes of a reporter”.
Roberto Saviano
F r a n c e s c a B o rr i
after studying Law and achieving a PhD in International Relations,
worked as mediator in Kosovo and Palestine. She has covered
the war in Syria as freelance reporter and her articles have been
Roberto Finzi
The Honest Pork
Vices and virtues of the pig in Italian culture
The pig is not just any animal, in almost all
cultures. First of all it can be called pig or
pork (and that already makes a difference)
depending on whether you consider it alive
or dead. Furthermore, it can be used as
a symbol for every kind of vice (dirt, lust,
greed etc.), or as a pet (see Saint Anthony).
From a logical viewpoint, the Bible does not
prohibit the eating of pork meat. Its vices
are probably linked to its being considered
dangerous (it’s hard to distinguish the
wild pig from the boar which, in fairy-tale
50
An erudite and amusing book, full
of curiosities.
The cultural story of a symbol about which
the great religions still differ today.
R o b ert o F i n z i
published in numerous national and international newspapers
including “The Guardian”, “The Columbia Journalism Review”,
“Il Fatto quotidiano” and “La Stampa”.
was born in Sansepolcro in 1941. He has taught Economic
History, History of Economic Thought, History of International
Economic Relations and Social History at the Universities of
Bologna, Ferrara and Trieste. Over the years he has written for
various newspapers such as “L’Unità”, “Rinascita”, “Il Manife-
Rights sold to: Spartacus (Norway)
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tradition, shares the same strength and
aggressiveness as the lion); but, on the other
hand, tradition also insists on the intelligence
of pigs compared to dogs, elephants and
even anthropomorphic monkeys... Hence its
ambivalence, throughout our culture, from
The Odyssey (with the Circe episode) to
Horace, Giordano Bruno, Erasmus, Fénelon
and Orwell.
Pages: 240
Publication: May 2014
Price: e 12,00
sto”, “La Repubblica”, “Il Piccolo”, “Il Corriere della Sera”. He
is author of over 200 scientific works and numerous didactic
writings. Besides Italy, his writings have been published in
Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, Japan,
Spain and the USA.
With a note by Claudio Magris
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Pages: 176
Publication: April 2014
Price: e11,00
51
CU R R E N T
ISSU E S
Cristina Gabetti
Stepping Lightly
A PASSO L E GGE RO
CU R R E N T
ISSU E S
Massimiliano Timpano
Pier Francesco Leofreddi
Closed for Kindle
Ch iu so per k in dle
A manifesto for eco-conduct: how to
step lightly through the world without
damaging it.
An illustrated book that is also a travelogue
through many countries, observing daily
life in different cultures.
Following the rhythm of the seasons,
the book offers reflections, tales and
advice on how to regain a balanced,
healthy relationship with the nature
that surrounds us. Against the invasion
of plastic, the degradation of the
environment and junk food, Cristina
Gabetti, journalist and writer, author
of the bestseller “Tentativi di ecocondotta”, ponders all the most crucial
topics of today’s ecology: water,
agriculture (uncontrolled and biological),
waste management. She recounts her
travel experiences (mainly in Italy, the
West Coast and Morocco) and draws
general reflections as well as offering
readers practical advice about a healthier
relationship with our world.
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Harassed by online stores and
supermarkets, threatened by e-books and
the economic crisis, the bookseller stands
firm like a soldier who totally believes
in his mission: regularly presenting his
readers with stories and ideas in the form
of books, choosing through experience
and with passion among the thousands
of proposals that fill the publishers’
catalogues. On the shelves, Don Quixote
and Maigret, recipe books and literary
sensations in varying shades, all competing
for the attention of the buyers. The readers
defend themselves as best they can,
comforted by the reviews in their favourite
newspapers and a healthy mistrust. Chiuso
per Kindle is a journey through the daily
life of a bookshop, an irresistible parade
of clients described by he who works
behind the till; a candid chronicle of the
bad habits of the publishing world in the
era of bestsellers at any cost. But it is an
act of pride with regard to an irreplaceable
profession that no tablet can defeat.
Massimilian o Timpan o a nd P ier Fr an ce sco Le o fredd i
Crist ina G a b ett i
journalist and writer, is well known for her commitment in favour
of a mindful respect for the environment. Born and educated in the
United States, married, with three children, she is a great traveller.
Bookseller: “How can I help you?
Customer: “I’d like to give a book to
someone who doesn’t read.”
She is the author of Tentativi di eco-condotta (Rizzoli, 2008) and
Occhio allo spreco (Rizzoli, 2009), which is also the title of her
popular television slot in the satirical tv show Striscia la notizia.
Pages: 216
Publication: October 2014
Price: e 16,00
are both booksellers who live and work in Rome.
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Pages: 176
Publication: April 2014
Price: e 9,50
53
L I T E R A RY
C R I T ICISM
Salvatore Silvano Nigro
The Devil’s Concierge
Il p ort i na i o del di av olo
L I T E R A RY
C R I T ICISM
Giuseppe Zaccaria
Boccaccio and the Origins
of the Modern Novel
B o ccaccio e le o r ig in i del r o man zo mo der n o
A reflection on the eye and its
magnificent obsession: door of the Devil
and access to Knowledge
In literature but not only, the eyes,
strengthened by glasses, binoculars
and telescopes, are the instrument for
seeing deep into the heart of things
that would otherwise be impermeable
and hidden. That is the satanic element
of looking: a diabolical desire to know
beyond appearances, or even distorting
appearances. On a journey that visits
Perec, Moravia, the Spanish Baroque,
Hitchcock, Bassani and many others,
Salvatore Silvano Nigro leads us to a
critical reflection on the eye, which
can be redeeming or harmful, fatal and
irresistible.
S a l v a t o re S i l v a n o N i gr o
is professor of Italian Literature at the IULM University of
Milan. He has taught at the Sorbonne, at the Ecole Normale
Supérieur de Paris, New York University, Indiana University,
Yale and the Scuola Normale di Pisa. In 2002 the Chicago
University awarded him a laurea honoris causa. His books
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54
An innovative analysis that emphasizes
the modernity of Boccaccio’s works
An essay that connects a classic
of Italian literature to the discovery
of the novel
A journey into the work of Boccaccio
along the border that separates the epic
from the novel. If the Florentine author
is the son of a heterogeneous tradition
that includes the Greek novel of the
Hellenic Age and those of chivalry, of
adventure and of manners, it is in The
Decameron that the themes of love,
family and matrimony are liberated
from the traditional rhetorical and
mythological structure: this is the start of
the modern novel. A front that reaches
as far as Calvino’s idea of combinatory
literature whereby “writing no longer
consists in narrating but in saying that
one is”.
Giuseppe Zaccaria
(about the novels of the1400s, Pontormo’s diaries, the Baroque
culture, about Manzoni, Soldati, Bassani, Sciascia, Manganelli
and Camilleri) have been translated into various languages.
He writes for the Sunday supplement of the “Sole 24 Ore”.
Bompiani published L’Orologio di Pontormo.
Pages: 168
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 16,00
professor of Italian Literature, is the Dean of the University
of Piemonte Orientale. Author of numerous critical studies,
besides minor collaborations with Bompiani he has directed
a section of the Dizionario degli autori (1987), edited and
introduced the correspondence Caro Bompiani. Lettere con
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l’editore (1988), published Le maschere e i volti. Il ‘carnevale’
nella letteratura italiana dell’Otto-Novecento (2003), and
edited the iconographic inserts of the general catalogues dated
1929-1999 e 1929-2009.
Pages: 144
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 10,00
55
PASSA G G I
Papa Francesco
Ferruccio de Bortoli I’m a Priest, I Like it
F a c ci o i l p rete, m i p i a c e
An extraordinary meeting, a stunning
interview
One year after his election, the Pope
who is revolutionising the Catholic
Church meets one of Italy’s most popular
journalists, editor-in-chief of “Corriere
della Sera”. Pope Francis looks back over
the first twelve months of his pontificate,
and his ability to arouse the enthusiasm
of believers and non-believers. Ferruccio
de Bortoli shows us the Pope’s more
human side, attentive towards the latter,
Carlo Maria Martini
Umberto Eco
Belief or Non-Belief
in co sa crede ch i n o n crede?
capable of a great revolutionary drive
within the Church. A Pope who has made
spontaneity the distinctive feature of his
actions and interventions. In this book
he recounts the most intense moments
of his life, from his youth in Argentina
to his relationship with his predecessor
Benedict XVI.
A text of great humaneness, aimed to
believers but also to all those fascinated
by Bergoglio’s charisma.
A lesson in respect. An example of
intelligence. A test of courage.
A leading figure of the Roman Catholic
Church and one of the most authoritative
laymen of our time discuss some of the
most complex moral and topical issues.
What does hope represent for a layman
and for a believer?
When does human life begin?
Does the Church agree with the equality
of the sexes? So why are women banned
from priesthood?
What can lay ethics be founded on if there
is no transcendental foundation to justify
them?
Some years ago Cardinal Martini and
Umberto Eco exchanged views on these
and other questions. Today these same
questions are still being discussed.
Before the dialogue between Pope Francis
and Eugenio Scalfari, a great example of
authentic confrontation
Against the vacuity, the ‘on principle’
attitude and the displays of certainty that
only hide a fear of others.
C a rd i n a l C a rl o M a r i a M a rt i n i
For the first time since his election one
year ago, Pope Francis talks about himself,
to the director of “Corriere della Sera”.
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56
PASSA G G I
“The Pope is a man who laughs, cries,
sleeps peacefully and has friends,
just like everyone.”
Pages: 90
Publication: September 2014
Price: e 7,00
(Torino 1927-Gallarate 2012), a Jesuit and one of the world’s
leading authorities on biblical exegesis, was Archbishop of Milan
from 1980 to 2002. He lived in Jerusalem from 2002 to 2008.
Cambiare il cuore (2005), written together with Alain Elkann, was
published by Bompiani.
Bompiani
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Pages: 128
Publication: April 2014
Price: e 9,00
57
PASSA G G I
Nuccio Ordine
The Usefulness of the Useless
L’ u t i li tà dell’i nuti le
It’s not true, even in times of crisis, that
only that which produces profit is useful.
There is a whole series of knowledge
considered “useless” that in fact turns
out to be extremely useful. In this ardent
pamphlet, Nuccio Ordine draws our
attention to the utility of that which is
useless and the futility of that which is
useful. Through the reflections of the great
philosophers (Plato, Aristotles, Tchouang
Tseu, Pico della Mirandola, Montaigne,
RECENT
H IS T O R Y
Nuccio Ordine
Three Crowns for a King
Tre co r o n e per u n re
Giordano Bruno, Kant, Tocqueville,
Newman, Heidegger) and great writers
(Ovid, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio,
Ariosto, Cervantes, Lessing, Dickens,
Garcia Màrquez, Ionesco, Calvino),
Nuccio Ordine shows how the obsession
of possession and the cult of utility end up
exhausting the spirit, endangering schools
and universities, art and creativity, as well
as such fundamental values as dignitas
hominis, love and truth.
Henry III’s feats and his mysteries
A fascinating journey through words and
images in company with the great figures
of the 1500s.
Over one hundred and twenty illustrations
An enthralling investigation starting from
the collections of emblems and feats of the
1500s. Through the analysis of dedications,
correspondence, portraits, diplomatic
papers, literary and philosophical writings,
typographical stamps, bindings, and
exploring the French and English artistic
and literary scenes, Nuccio Ordine
reconstructs a tight network of allusions and
relations that link the courts of the King of
France and Queen Elizabeth I. Within this
itinerary, beside those ancient imperialistic
ambitions, there take shape some of the
great myths linked to the European debate
on religion and the power of the monarchy,
on cosmology and on knowledge.
N u c c i o Ord i n e
professor of Italian Literature at the University of Calabria,
is one of the leading scholars of Giordano Bruno. Visiting
professor at various prestigious universities, his books have
been translated into nine languages. In France he is director of
classics for Les Belles Lettres.
Rights sold to: Spain (Acantilado); Catalan (Quaderns
Crema); Greece (Agra); Korea (Ahn Graphics); France (Les
Belles Lettres); Germany (Graf Verlag); Romania (Humanitas);
Bulgaria (Iztok Zapad); Taiwan (Azoth Books); Galitian and
Portuguese (Kalandraka); China (Phei); Japan (Soshisha);
USA (Paul Dry Books); Turkey (Bilgi University Press)
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Preface by Mar c Fu mar o l i
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59
RECENT
H IS T O R Y
Valentina Pisanty
The Annoying Matter
of Gas Chambers
P H I L OSOP H Y
AN D S E MIO T ICS
Diego Fusaro
The Future is Ours
Il f u t u r o è n o str o
L’ I R RIT ANT E QUE ST IONE DE L L E CAMER E A G AS
An upsetting essay about negationism and its
supporters
Millions of Jews ended their life in gas
chambers in nazi camps. Everybody knows
that. But there still is somebody who insists
in asserting that the victims were only one
million, that gas chambers were a mere detail
in Second World War history, that genocide
is just an invention of the allies’ propaganda,
and in Auschwitz “only flies were gassed”.
Holocaust negationism is strong and lively.
The semiologist Valentina Pisanty confronts
the argumentative strategies of negationists
in order to unmask the communication skills
and techniques adopted by those who wish
to efface forever “the annoying matter of
gas chambers”, as Paul Rassinier, the first
supporter of Holocaust negationism, dubbed it.
Published for the first time in 1998, the book
comes out in a revised edition, enriched
with a new chapter reconstructing the
communication circuits in which “denial” is
inserted and analyzing the cultural dynamics
triggered by this mechanism from the end of
the Seventies to the present, with particular
attention to the phenomenon of Holocaust
denial on the web.
V a le n t i n a P i s a n ty
semiologist, teaches at the University of Bergamo. She has written
essays on semiotics of interpretation, fairy tale, humor, the
rhetoric of racism and memory. With Bompiani she has published
Changing the world through philosophy
“Today we are the inhabitants of the first
social and political form that doesn’t pass
itself off as perfect, but even boasts about
its imperfection.”
A manifesto for action and change by one
of the most brilliant philosophers of the
new generation.
The new essay by Diego Fusaro is
a whiplash against an increasingly
widespread attitude: that of coping with
the world as if it made by unchangeable
situation, acknowledging reality instead of
changing it and building a better one. If
the success of the new realism gave us a
framework to move in for describing and
understanding reality, then the time has
come to break that frame and finally lose
contact with reality so as to imagine a new
world. The new generations must bring
about the change – a “ new idealism” that
will infect the young and overcome their
awe-inspiring fears. In order to go back to
thinking and reacting.
D i eg o F u s a r o
Leggere la fiaba (1993), La difesa della razza (2006) and, with
Roberto Pellerey, Semiotica e interpretazione (2004).
(Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele di Milano) is an assiduous
scholar of the “philosophy of history” and the structures
of historical temporality, with a particular attention to the
thoughts of Fichte, Hegel, Marx and the German “history of
concepts” (Begriffsgeschichte). For Bompiani he has edited
the bilingual editions of various works by Marx. He has also
dedicated three monographic studies to the interpretation
of Marxist thought and its links with Fichtian and Hegelian
idealism: Filosofia e speranza (2005), Marx e l’atomismo
greco (2007), Karl Marx e la schiavitù salariata (2007) and
Bentornato Marx! (Bompiani 2009). He is responsible for the
internet project “La filosofia e i suoi eroi” (www.filosofico.net).
A formi dab le w ork o f sele ction
from the ov er th irty th ousan d ver se s
th at cons titu te the timele ss b eau ty
a nd truth o f the Bible
Bompiani
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60
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Price: e 12,00
Bompiani
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Pages: 620
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61
P H I L OSOP H Y
AN D S E MIO T ICS
Franco Rella
Forms of Knowledge.
Eros, Death, Violence
P H I L OSOP H Y
AN D S E MIO T ICS
Patrizia Violi
Memory’s Landscapes
P ae sagg i dell a me mo r ia
F O R ME DE L SAPE RE . L’E ROS, L A MO RTE, LA VIOLENZA
A philosophical stroll along with the great
men of knowledge to understand where
our knowledge comes from and which
experiences shape it.
Where does knowledge come from? What
experience triggers it off? According to
the author, the origins of knowledge
are first and foremost three: eros, death
and violence. To explain this, Rella
retraces a complex journey from ancient
times to the present day. He starts from
Plato’s Symposium (where knowledge is
linked to eros), passing through Phaedo
(where knowledge comes through the
death of Socrates), and continues with
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Foucault to
reflect about the relationship between
eros, death and knowledge. Reaching
the 1900s he considers the devastating
role that violence plays in knowledge
– a knowledge that reveals itself to be
ever more fragmentary and incapable of
expression.
A book of analysis that takes up Susan
Sontag’s reflections in Davanti al dolore
degli altri, using semiotic tools.
At the end of every war or dictatorship
there remain the places where atrocities
have been committed – embarrassing
testimonies of the crimes carried out:
prisons, concentration camps, places of
torture. These places are increasingly
F r a n c o R ell a
P a tr i z i a V i o l i
is a university professor, essayist and exhibition curator.
is Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna and
director of the TRAME Centre, a centre of studies on memory
and cultural traumas. (www.trame.unibo.it)
being transformed into museums,
becoming the destinations of a particular
tourism. Paesaggi della memoria analyses
in a semiotics perspective several of these
sites, from Cambodia to China, from
South America to Italy, mapping out
how, after Auschwitz, different cultures
preserve and transmit the memory of past
traumas. How does one show terrible
events?
Rights of Significato e esperienza sold to: USA (Indiana University
Press)
Bompiani
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62
Pages: 216
Publication: April 2014
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Pages: 360
Publication: October 2014
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63
F AS H ION
Ennio Capasa
A New World
U n n uov o m ondo
One of the big names of Italian high
fashion, the founder of CoSTUME
NATIONAL, recounts his training in
Japan.
A journey into fashion and into the heart
of cultural traditions from Salento to
Japanese Zen.
It is 1983 when Ennio, who has just
turned twenty, leaves Puglia for Tokyo
where he meets Yohji Yamamoto, a
genius of fashion in the iconic Eighties.
It is in Yamamoto’s atelier, which is
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
Umberto Eco
The Book of Legendary Lands
St o r ia delle terre e de i l u o gh i legge n d ar i
sort of a temple, that Ennio begins to
understand the deep differences between
the South Italian culture he was raised
in and Japan; differences regarding not
only the materialistic aspects of Japan
(technology, food, earthquakes…) but also
those more deeply rooted in culture: the
hierarchical and militaristic shape of
society; the work ethics; lovemaking. A
few years later Ennio Capasa will start
his own brand, CoSTUME NATIONAL,
bound to become a protagonist of the
fashion world.
From Homer’s poems to contemporary
science fiction, from the Holy Scriptures
to comics, passing through all the
cornerstones of our education in literature
(from Gulliver’s Travels to Alice in
Wonderland, from Tolkien to Marco Polo’s
Milione), literature through the ages has
continuously invented imaginary and
legendary lands, projecting there all those
wishes, dreams, utopias and nightmares
that are too intrusive and challenging
for our limited real world. After History
of Beauty, History of Ugliness and
Infinity of List, Umberto Eco leads us
on an illustrated journey through these
distant, unknown lands, showing us their
inhabitants, the passions, the heroes
and, above all, the importance they hold
for us. A journey that is both erudite
and enjoyable, in a way only Umberto
Eco knows how to create. Ancient
and medieval texts side by side with
contemporary stories, films beside poems,
comics beside novels- those that have
influenced the sensitivity and background
of all of us.
Ennio Capasa
born in Lecce, Puglia, after obtaining his degree at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Milan he moved to Tokyo where he worked as Yohji
Yamamoto’s assistant for two years.
On his return to Italy, in 1986, he and his brother Carlo founded
Costume National. Ennio Capasa is well known for his aesthetics –
iconographic, minimal, chic, rock’n’roll. According to the New York
Times he is the stylist “who inspired and revolutionized the fashion
of the Nineties”. He has an ongoing working relationship with the
greatest artists of the international scene: Mick Jagger, Lady Gaga,
David Bowie, Keith Richards, Willem Dafoe, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves,
Tom Cruise, Marina Abramovic, Maurizio Cattelan, Michel Gondry,
Giada Colagrande, Matteo Garrone and many more.
Rights sold to:Brazil (Record); Czech Republic (Argo);
France (Flammarion); Germany (Hanser); Hungary (Europa);
Netherlands (Prometheus); Poland (Rebis); Russia (Slovo);
Spain (Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial); UK (Quercus);
USA (Rizzoli International Publications, Simplified Chinese
(CCT Press); Israel (Kinneret); Romania (Rao); Portugal
(Gradiva); Korea (The Open Books); Serbia (Vulkan); Japan
(Toyo Shorin)
Bompiani
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64
Pages: 184
Publication: September 2014
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Bompiani
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65
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
Sergio Risaliti
Michelangelo.
The Vatican Pietà
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
M i c hela ngelo. T he Vati c a n Pi età
The miracle of a shapeless stone
The story of a miracle of art, one of the
world’s most celebrated masterpieces.
Art scholars of Michelangelo have rarely
dealt with the relationship between
the artist and his clients. Sergio Risaliti
and Francesco Vossilla investigate the
Vatican Pietà (one of Michelangelo’s
most admired works, considered even in
the 1500s as one of the most beautiful
statues ever) focusing on the figure of
the client who commissioned it. Their
investigation enabled them to learn more
about several original aspects of the
representation: the “suspension of death”,
the sublimation towards beauty, and the
grace of the more dramatic aspects of the
event.
Vittorio Sgarbi
The Viewpoint of the Horse.
Caravaggio
il pu n t o d i vist a del cavall o . car avagg io
Caravaggio: a genius of painting and his
unusual view of the world
A painter, a bandit, a genius, Michelangelo
Merisi da Caravaggio was the artist
who changed forever European art and
painting. Vittorio Sgarbi has never ceased
to confront the Lombardy artist, following
the path of the critic who brought him to
Serg i o R i s a l i t i
V i tt o r i o Sg a r b i
is an art critic and creator of exhibitions.
was born in Ferrara. Art critic and scholar, he has organized
numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and is author of
various essays and articles. In 2011 he directed the Italian
Pavilion for the 54th Venice Biennale of Art. He has published
with Bompiani: Il bene e il bello (2002), Dell’anima (2004),
Ragione e passione. Contro l’indifferenza (2005), Vedere le
parole (2006), Clausura a Milano e non solo. Da suor Letizia
the attention of the world after centuries
of oblivion: Longhi. Il punto di vista del
cavallo reveals Caravaggio’s photographic
aptitude, his desire to choose new
viewpoints. An illustrated book with a new
approach that will seduce both experts
and those delving into the mysteries of
Caravaggio for the first time.
a Salemi (e ritorno) (2008), L’Italia delle meraviglie (2009),
Viaggio sentimentale nell’Italia dei desideri (2010), Le
meraviglie di Roma. Dal Rinascimento ai giorni nostri (2011),
Piene di grazia. I volti della donna nell’arte (2011) e L’arte è
contemporanea (2012), Nel nome del figlio (2012) and Il tesoro
d’Italia (2013).
The author is translated in: USA (Rizzoli International;
Other Press); Poland (Rebis); Russia (Slovo)
Bompiani
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66
Pages: 156
Publication: Spring 2015
Price: e 18,00
Bompiani
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Pages: 160
Publication: June 2014
Price: e 12,00
67
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
Vittorio Sgarbi
The Wondrous Years
I L L US T R A T E D
BOO K S
From Piero della Francesca to Pontormo
Art, cinema, modernity
G l i a nni delle Merav i gli e. Da Pi ero della Fran cesca a Po n to rmo
The second volume of an unusual,
enthralling History of Art, that teaches us
how to love the masterpieces around us
Italy is an open-air treasure. Time and
again Vittorio Sgarbi has repeated it and
demonstrated it. In this second volume, he
continues his journey through Italy which
he had interrupted at the 14th century; this
time with the world renowned Renaissance
Masters: from Piero della Francesca to
Bellini, from Mantegna to Bramante, up
to Titian, Lotto and Pontormo. But beside
the Masters there are also those treasures
known only to Sgarbi. Italy is studded with
them, unbeknown to most: Bartolomeo
della Gatta, Nicolò Alunno, Giovanni
Boccati, master of fables, Francesco
di Bettino, on the verge of madness.
V i tt o r i o Sg a r b i
was born in Ferrara. Art critic and scholar, he has organized
numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and is author of
various essays and articles. In 2011 he directed the Italian
Pavilion for the 54th Venice Biennale of Art. He has published
with Bompiani: Il bene e il bello (2002), Dell’anima (2004),
Ragione e passione. Contro l’indifferenza (2005), Vedere le
parole (2006), Clausura a Milano e non solo. Da suor Letizia
Vincenzo Trione
City Effect
Effetto C itt à. Arte , cin e ma, mo der n it à
The paths of visual culture in the 20th
century in an illustrated essay that allows
us to look at our cities with new eyes
Art, cinema, metropolises: these are the
keywords which Vincenzo Trione uses to
reconstruct modernity, inviting us to take
a surprising journey, through personalities,
questions, thematic intersections,
exemplary figures (painters and sculptors
like Boccioni, de Chirico, Mondrian,
Warhol, and directors like Ejzenstein, Man
Ray, Pasolini, Wenders, Spike Lee...).
From the period of the avant-garde of the
early 1900s to more recent experiences:
from Futurism to Metaphysics, from pop
art to graffiti, up to the experimentations
linked to photography and video. In
sequence, many different “visions of the
city”, following an enthralling itinerary
that questions the effects on painting and
cinema created by the confrontation with
the metropolis.
Vincenzo Trione
a Salemi (e ritorno) (2008), L’Italia delle meraviglie (2009),
Viaggio sentimentale nell’Italia dei desideri (2010), Le
meraviglie di Roma. Dal Rinascimento ai giorni nostri (2011),
Piene di grazia. I volti della donna nell’arte (2011) e L’arte è
contemporanea (2012), Nel nome del figlio (2012) and Il tesoro
d’Italia (2013).
teaches Art and New Media and History of Contemporary Art at
the Iulm University of Milan. He writes for “Corriere della Sera”
and has a regular art column in “Io Donna”. He has been the
curator of contemporary art exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
Besides numerous essays on moments and figures of the 20th
century avant-garde, he has edited among others the following
works: I luoghi e l’anima. Mario Sironi / Constant Permeke
(2005), Salvador Dalí. Il sogno si avvicina (2010), Alberto
Savinio. La commedia dell’arte (24 Ore Cultura, 2011). He cowrote the book Monocromos. De Malevich al presente (2004),
which has been translated into several languages (Editions du
Regard, 2004; The California University Press, 2006).
The author is translated in: Russia (Slovo); USA (Other Press;
Rizzoli International); Poland (Rebis)
Bompiani
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68
Pages: 480
Publication: November 2014
Price: e 22,00
Bompiani
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Pages: 832
Publication: October 2014
Price: e 55,00
69
bompiani
elisabetta sgarbi
editorial director
tel. +39 02 25842666
fax +39 02 25842788
elisabetta.sgarbi@rcs.it
beatrice.masini@rcs.it
manuela.melato@rcs.it
Bompiani
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