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 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 3 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 4 63 68 69 5 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 FICTION rights list 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. Bompiani FICTION rights list 10 Pages: 180 Publication: January 2015 Price: e 14,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 12 Pages: 238 Publication: March 2012 Price: e 17,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 FICTION rights list 14 Pages: 144 Publication: October 2014 Price: e 13,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 FICTION rights list 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 FICTION rights list 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. Bompiani FICTION rights list 18 Pages: 148 Publication: 2015 Price: e 16,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 20 Pages: 144 Publication: August 2014 Price: e 12,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 22 Pages: 96 Publication: November 2013 Price: e 9,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 24 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 26 Pages: 240 Publication: May 2014 Price: e 17,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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. Bompiani fiction rights list 28 Pages: 192 Publication: March 2014 Price: e 16,00 Bompiani fiction rights list 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 Bompiani fiction rights list 30 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), Bompiani fiction rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 32 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 34 Pages: 240 Publication: March 2014 Price: e 17,50 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 36 Pages: 184 Publication: January 2015 Price e 17,50 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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. Bompiani fiction rights list 38 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 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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) Bompiani FICTION rights list 40 Pages: 288 Publication: April 2014 Price: e 12,90 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 Bompiani fiction rights list 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. Bompiani FICTION rights list Pages: 96 Publication: April 2014 Price: e 10.00 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 . Bompiani fiction rights list 44 Pages: 192 Publication: September 2014 Price: e 11,00 Bompiani FICTION rights list 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 Bompiani rights list 46 fiction Pages: 208 Publication: September 2014 Price: e 12,00 Bompiani fiction rights list 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) Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 Bompiani non rights list fiction 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. Bompiani non rights list fiction 52 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. Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 Bompiani non rights list fiction 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”. Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 non rights list fiction 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) Bompiani non rights list fiction 58 Pages: 272 Publication: September 2013 Price: e 9,00 Preface by Mar c Fu mar o l i Bompiani non rights list fiction Pages: 320 Publication: May 2015 Price: e 20,00 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 non rights list fiction 60 Pages: 384 Publication: January 2014 Price: e 12,00 Bompiani non rights list fiction Pages: 620 Publication: September 2014 Price: e 15,00 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 non rights list fiction 62 Pages: 216 Publication: April 2014 Price: e 20,00 Bompiani non rights list fiction Pages: 360 Publication: October 2014 Price: e 20,00 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 non rights list fiction 64 Pages: 184 Publication: September 2014 Price: e 18,00 Bompiani non rights list fiction Pages: 480 Publication: October 2013 Price: e 35,00 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 non rights list fiction 66 Pages: 156 Publication: Spring 2015 Price: e 18,00 Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 non rights list fiction 68 Pages: 480 Publication: November 2014 Price: e 22,00 Bompiani non rights list fiction 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 via Rizzoli 8 20132 Milano Italy