Rights List 2012

Rights List 2012
Abate Carmine
Accardo Salvatore
Angela Alberto
Bahrami Ramin
Bevilacqua Alberto
Bernardini Irene Bignardi Daria Caferri Francesca Camilleri Andrea
Cattaneo Arturo
Cavanna Alberto Cazzullo Aldo Cerrini Simonetta
Clerici Antonella, Spisni Alessandra e Barzetti Sergio
Colombo Maria Paola Conti Guido Costamagna Luisella Culicchia Giuseppe
Dalai Michele De Giovanni Maurizio Defilippi Alessandro De Crescenzo Luciano Fubini Federico
Fusini Nadia
Frale Barbara
Genovesi Fabio Giordano Paolo Godart Louis Gratteri Nicola-Nicaso Antonio Guccini Francesco La collina del vento 4
Il miracolo della musica 59
L’amore ai tempi dell’antica Roma 36
Come Bach mi ha salvato la vita 64
Roma Califfa18
Bambini e basta 60
L’acustica perfetta6
Il Paradiso ai piedi delle donne 62
Il diavolo, certamente22
La notte inglese8
L’uomo che non contava i giorni 23
L’Italia s’è ridesta50
L’Apocalisse dei Templari 37
La prova del cuoco67
Il negativo dell’amore7
Il grande fiume Po 20
Noi che costruiamo gli uomini 63
Venere in metro 9
Le più strepitose cadute della mia vita 10
Il metodo del Coccodrillo 12
La paziente n. 9
26 Foss’e a Madonna 44
Noi siamo la rivoluzione 52
La figlia del sole 19
La lingua segreta degli Dei 28
Versilia Rock City 11
Il corpo umano
3
41
La Tavola Doria
Dire e non dire 47
Dizionario delle cose perdute 24
Littizzetto Luciana
Martini Carlo Maria
Messori Vittorio Niemeyer Oscar Oddati Nicola Odifreddi Piergiorgio
Oggero Margherita Palmieri Francesco Parsi Maria Rita Pedretti Bruno
Peronaci Sonia Piperno Alessandro Quilici Folco Rampini, Federico
Ranno Tea Ratzinger Josef
Ravasi Gianfranco
Rosi Francesco - Tornatore Giuseppe
Ruini Camillo - Galli Andrea
Santagata Marco Signorini Alfonso Sullam Anna Vera Tamà Patrizia Tamimi Widad Tani Cinzia Tesio Silvia Torregrossa Giuseppina
Verga Massimiliano Villari Rosario Wertmueller Lina
Nuovo titolo 68
Colti da stupore 57
Bernadette non ci ha ingannato 54
Il mondo è ingiusto 40
Il teorema dell’a corda 29
Diamo spazio al tempo 43
Un colpo all’atezza del cuore 30
Il libro napoletano dei morti 21
Doni 45
La sinfonia delle cose mute 14
Divertiti cucinando 66
Inseparabili 5
Relitti e tesori 42
Voi avete gli orologi, noi abbiamo il tempo 53
La sposa vermiglia 16
Pensieri di fede per una vita felice 56
58
Guida ai naviganti
Mi chiamano professore ma faccio il cinematografo
49
Intervista su Dio 55
Dante
38
Amore, folle amore 35
Undici stelle risplendenti 31
La profezia di Michelangelo 32
Il caffè delle donne 17
Il bacio della dionea 33
Piacere, io sono Gauss34
Panza e prisenza 25
Zigulì 65
Un sogno di libertà 39
Tutto a posto e niente in ordine 48
1
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LITERARY FICTION
310 pages October 2012
It’s been a long silence - nearly five years. The expectations aroused, in me as much
as anyone, by the success of The Solitude of Prime Numbers seemed for some time an
insurmountable obstacle, and made me very selective about the subject of my second
book. None of the ideas I’ve toyed with seemed capable of producing comparable emotions;
I began to wonder if I’d ever find a subject.
I decided to wait. I didn’t want to avoid the difficulties by publishing a slight work to release
the tension, or by other indirect methods. I wanted my second book to be a novel, and
one that would finally make me feel I deserved to be in the place where events had put me.
In December 2010 I travelled to Afghanistan with some Italian troops, intending to write
a brief report on my experiences. As chance or destiny would have it, I f ound myself in
a Forward Operating Base little known to civilians in the southern region of Gulistan, in
the middle of a desert surrounded by mountains.
At FOB ‘Ice’ - that was its name - I met young men of my own age. I realized that, if every
generation has its war, the war in Afghanistan is my generation’s war.
I imagined what it would be like to be in the soldiers’s place in that paradoxical context,
and when I returned home I started writing The Human Body. The power of the stimuli I’d
received in the ten days I’d spent there proved greater than any fear or doubt, and carried
me through to the end, a year and a half later.
The result is a war novel, or rather a novel about war, in its multiple incarnations: war
in the literal sense - the conflict in Afghanistan; the war of intimate relationships, both
emotional and familial; and the invisible, highly destructive war that we wage against
ourselves. Each of the many characters in the story faces the painful transition from being
young to finally discovering that they‘re adults, different people, with responsibilities
they’d rather not have and don’t feel ready to take on. After the explosive effect that my
first book had on my life, there was no more personal subject I could have dealt with.
I hope the enthusiasm I’ve put into this book has an equally explosive effect on you.
Paolo Giordano
Paolo Giordano is the youngest-ever winner of Italy’s prestigious literary award, the
Premio Strega, for his debut novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers (2008), a massive
international bestseller, which has been translated into forty languages worldwide.
He has a PhD in theoretical physics and lives in Turin.
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Paolo Giordano
Il corpo umano
The human Body
LITERARY FICTION
264 pages February 2012
Carmine Abate
La collina del vento
The Windy Hill
An engrossing, poetical novel set on the shores of the Ionian Sea.
One day in April 1929 the renowned
archeologist Paolo Orsi from Trento
asks for permission to dig around
the “Collina del Vento” (the windy
hill) along the Ionian Coastline of
Calabria in the toes of Italy on the
trail of the ancient and mythological
city of Krimisa.
Surprisingly the owner of the land
reacts very violently and sends
him packing in front of his child,
a young boy who will then become
the guardian of the hill and of its
secrets.
Many years later another expedition
tries again and this time it will be
the wind that uncovers the secrets
of the hills and of the large and
courageous family that protected it
for generations.
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A morality tale, a domestic drama
and a paean to the beauty which still
exists in the hills in the Southern
part of Italy.
A strong plot as it backtracks
through events; a lyrical and poetical
novel without being sentimental.
Carmine Abate, Carfizzi, 1954,
migrated to Germany as a young
man and now lives and teaches in
the Trento region. He made his
debut with a collection of short
stories, then ventured into poetry
and fiction. His books include Tra
i due mari, Il ballo tondo, Gli anni
veloci, and Il mosaico del tempo
grande, all published by Mondadori.
LITERARY FICTION
360 pages February 2012
Alessandro Piperno
Inseparabili
Inseparable
A compelling human story
PREMIO
2012
Inseparable, like love birds
that can only survive with each
other’s company – that’s what the
Pontecorvo brothers, Filippo and
Samuel, have always been. The two
are as different as they are
complementary.
But their destinies seem to switch
places as something begins to crack.
Lazy Filippo goes on to become a
world-renowned cartoonist, a star
for fans who wants to join “charm
and civil outrage, sex appeal and
humanitarian protest”.
While the promisingly brilliant
Samuel is faced with doom at work
and in his love life.
Alessandro Piperno returns with
the Pontecorvo family in the eagerly
awaited follow-up to previous
Persecuzione.
This second book (which can also
be read independently) continues
the story of Professor Pontecorvo’s
children, barely teenager at the
time of the 1980s scandal told in
the previous book and now in their
late thirties.
An extraordinary novel and a
perennial source of linguistic
delight.
Alessandro Piperno (born
in 1972) is the author of the
celebrated Con le peggiori intenzioni
(2005) and Persecuzione (2010).
Among his foreign publishers:
Liana Levi, Contact, Lumen,
Fischer, Patakis, Corpus,
Europa, Presença, Alma Littera,
Proszynski i s-ka.
“Piperno is 39, he smokes a pipe like
Simenon, reads Philip Roth and writes
about Proust, And you can tell.”
Le Magazine Littéraire
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LITERARY FICTION
204 pages November 2012
Daria Bignardi
L’acustica perfetta
Perfect acoustics
What do we keep hidden even from those who love us?
One cold morning in December,
around Christmas, the alarm
clock goes off unexpectedly on the
nightstand of Arno Cange, a cellist
who plays for La Scala. The house is
immersed in silence, the children
are asleep in their beds, the table is
set for breakfast. But where’s Sara?
She is always the first to get up and
take care of everything… From a
laconic letter, Arno comes to learn
that Sara has left after thirteen years
of marriage: she doesn’t say where,
why, or for how long.
Thrown against his will into the
small inconveniences of everyday
life, Arno will discover many things:
that his kraut mother is terrible at
taking care of her grandchildren,
while his father Guelfo, whom
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he always thought of as an
irresponsible hippie, has noticed
much and knows what’s happening.
Arno will find the ideal housemate
in Sara’s father, the silent and
pragmatic Rino, and, to his
surprise, will finally come to know
his children, whom he always loved
but never spent enough time with
while Sara was around.
But most of all he will have to come
to terms with his wife’s secrets,
tucked away in a past that will
slowly be revealed to him, one step
at a time, through an itinerary that
has the depth of a Bildungsroman
or a noir mystery. Will Arno ever
see cross paths with ruthless and
tender Sara again, the only woman
he ever loved?
Daria bignardi, (born in Ferrara)
journalist and screenwriter, is the
star of the popular TV talk-show
“Le invasioni barbariche” and
a columnist for “Vanity Fair”. In
2009 her debut novel Non vi lascero’
orfani was a poignant literary case
with 150,000 copies sold. In 2010
she has published Un karma pesante.
LITERARY FICTION
336 pages January 2012
Maria Paola Colombo
Il negativo dell’amore
The Negative of Love
A powerful and tender debut
What kind of future can you expect
if you survive the night your mother
threw herself in the river, with you
in her arms? Cica lives in a small
town in northern Italy, she is seven
years old and has two scars on her
back like the marks of torn-off
wings. And what kind of future
can you expect if you’re born with
trisomy of chromosome 21? Little
Walker has Down’s syndrome and
is the eldest child of a picturesque
Apulian family.
His normal yet extraordinary
parents do their best to learn, to
adapt to his pace and his rather
dreamy slowness.
Ten years later Cica and Walker are
two teenagers having their first
experience of love. They were born
a thousand kilometres apart and
they don’t know each other; they
don’t know that they share the same
innocence and the same courage.
One warm, almost summery
October night their destinies
intersect: the encounter is explosive
and revealing.
Maria Paola Colombo (born in
1979) has worked in a bank since
the age of twenty and is convinced
that the liberation fiction brings is
the key to great happiness.
Rights sold in Germany
(Karl Blessing), Netherlands
(Prometheus), Israel (Kinneret)
and France (Presse de la Cité).
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LITERARY FICTION
204 pages April 2012
Arturo Cattaneo
La notte inglese
The English Night
A midsummer’s night at cambridge university
The Cambridge Society Dinner is
the university’s traditional gala
event. As the formality gradually
fades, the community is overcome
by an irresistible wave of eroticism
and intoxication. When love pokes
through the surface, it is mocking
and unattainable. On such a night,
the young and brilliant Italian
protagonist, secretly tormented by
the shame of his own virginity, at
long last meets a woman. Not the
one he’s always dreamed of – it’s a
thoroughly unexpected encounter
in a whirlwind of surprises.
A brilliant comedy in five acts,
each one a stronger ethylic potion
– Sherry, Red Wine, Port and
Madeira, High Spirits – until the
final act, Milk, when the magical
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night comes to an end and at
breakfast Riccardo, still feeling the
mesmerizing effects, reflects on
a lifelong question: what changes
with love’s onslaught?
Arturo Cattaneo is a journalist and
a professor of English Literature at
Cattolica University in Milano. Ci
vediamo a settembre, his first novel,
was released in 2010.
LITERARY FICTION
264 pages September 2012
Giuseppe Culicchia
Venere in metrò
Venus in metro
Super-fit, Super-career oriented, SuperSexy, SuperMom, SuperWoman
Bea is thirty-eight, she is a size
ten, she lives in downtown Milan,
everyday she visits the Blond Salad
website to decide what to wear, she
has a career oriented husband, a
lover whose Facebook status says “in
love,” a son who attends a Steiner
school, two girlfriends named Ilaria
and Solaria, an iPhone, an iPod, an
iPad, and a psychoanalyst who says
only these words at the end of every
session: “that’ll be three-hundred
euros.” Everything is impeccable,
or so it would seem. Yet suddenly
something breaks. At first it is a
small crack, which will spread like
a spider web and crumble Bea’s
every certainty: the loss of her job
at the communication agency, an
unexpected sentimental impasse,
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a blocked credit card, a son who
shows clear signs of distress…
In an irresistible satirical vein,
Culicchia brings to life a character
that is actually deeply tragic, caught
in a web of lies and exaggerations
that reveals the most hypocritical
side of the bourgeois at the
beginning of the millennium,
celebrating both its rituals and
its decline. After hitting the rock
bottom of the crisis, he shows how
we can resume life by renouncing
everything and be the richer for it.
Giuseppe Culicchia (born in
Turin in 1965) published his short
stories in the anthology Papergang
Under 25 III (1990), edited by Pier
Vittorio Tondelli. His first novel
Tutti giù per terra (1994) won the
Mont Blanc prize and the Grinzane
Cavour Prize and was translated
in France by Albin Michel and in
Germany by DTV.
With Mondadori he published
Brucia la città (2009) and Ameni
inganni (2010).
LITERARY FICTION
300 pages March 2012
Michele Dalai
Le più strepitose cadute della mia vita
The Most Spectacular Falls of my Life
A triumphant story of a failure
Antonio Fluenke is a twentynine-year-old singer. Educated
in the best international schools,
he has an eccentric mother who
lives in Romagna and a sensitive,
depressed German father. He also
has a problem which no doctor has
managed to solve – he keeps falling
over.
In the most absurd and illogical
situations, he loses his balance and
falls down, laughing uncontrollably.
His goal is to set up a boy band,
the Italian answer to Take That,
and perform at Sanremo, the most
prestigious songfest in Italy.
A host of memorable characters
crosses his path and – captured
in a series of moving, surreal
‘interludes’ – some great historical
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figures who have had the misfortune
to fall down in public like Antonio:
Margaret Thatcher on a state visit to
China; Pope John Paul II alone on a
slippery floor; Michael Spinks,
the undisputed world champion,
in front of Mike Tyson; Enrico
Berlinguer...
A funny, inventively written and
more than slightly odd first novel.
Michele Dalai (born in 1973) after
working in his family’s publishing
house, in 2010 was co-founder
of the publishing house add. A
professional journalist, he writes
for several newspapers and has
worked on radio and TV.
LITERARY FICTION
216 pages February 2012
Fabio Genovesi
Versilia Rock City
A mordantly funny novel
Following the success of Esche
vive, one of the most brilliant and
hilarious novels in 2011, here’s a
new, completely reworked version
of Fabio Genovesi’s debut novel (a
small literary case in 2008).
With his usual irony Fabio takes a
behind-the-scenes look at Forte dei
Marmi and Versilia, the exclusive
Toscana seaside resort where he
was born and where he currently
lives. Through the lives of four
people searching their place in the
world the novel marks the contrast
between the luxury and glitz in
summer and the ordinary life of
local townspeople forced to live in
a perennial playground, beyond the
stereotypes of the snobbish beachsets and the celebrated night-clubs.
A hilarious gaze on the lives of
others set in the fashionable riviera
resort.
“If John Irving had an Italian son, it
would be named Fabio Genovesi”
Schnuess, Bonn
“Genovesi gives the perception of his
three characters properly, and makes
their bumpling into heartbreaking and
hilarious events.”
Elle NL
Fabio Genovesi (born in 1974 in
Forte dei Marmi) is the author
of the novel Esche vive (2011),
rights of which were sold in
Germany (Luebbe), Netherlands
(Signatuur), France (Fayard),
Spain (Espasa Calpe), Brasil
(Bertrand) and Israel (Keter).
He is a regular contributor to
“Vanity Fair” and to the book
supplement to “Corriere della
Sera” - that is, whenever he has
time off from his main activity:
fishing.
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LITERARY thriller
252 pages April 2012,
Maurizio de Giovanni
Il metodo del coccodrillo
The Crocodile Method
A mysterious serial killer in naples
Inspector Lojacono is punished
with a transfer from Sicily to
Naples, where his new colleagues
ignore him and his superiors make
sure he is not given any important
assignments. He supposedly
accepted bribe money from the
mafia, the reason for his exile.
Suddenly Naples is rocked by the
murder of three teenagers – of
different ages and backgrounds,
their bodies are found in three
different districts of the city,
each with a lone bullet wound.
Only Lojacono is able to make a
connection between the crimes
– the key being a tear-stained
handkerchief left by the killer at
each scene. Indeed, the newspapers
begin referring to the murderer as
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“The Crocodile”. Chaotic, dazzling
and damned Naples is the setting in
which two solitary figures face off
in a battle of determination and
wits – the cop and the killer, mirror
images. A suspenseful story and a
well-plotted and intelligent thriller.
Maurizio de Giovanni (born in
1958 in Naples) is the creator of
Inspector Ricciardi, protagonist
in a series of best-selling novels
published by Fandango and
Einaudi.
Rights sold in UK (Little,Brown),
US (Europa Editions), Spain
(Roja y Negra/RHM), Germany
(Kindler), France (Fleuve Noir),
Denmark (Art People).
LITERARY FICTION
192 pages April 2012,
Massimo Lolli
Le cinque regole del corteggiamento
The Five Rules of Courtship
An exilarating look at smalltown life and love
Each year Bertilla and Maria
Cira meet up. Both friends love
their children very much, but are
bored out of their skulls with their
husbands.
Joining the two old pals are Roberta,
Patrizia and Giulia.
The gang has one goal in mind: to
engage in sexual exploits without
letting the others in on their game.
Moreno Donadello is a washedup bard from the women’s teen
years, once a hero of cinema and
TV commercials, maker of the cult
movie Un mercoledì da terroni.
The only soul in the world that loves
and admires him is his clumsy
15-year-old nephew Matteo, an
aspiring poet.
The highpoint of this year’s romp
sees Bertilla and Maria Cira in
action at the Bat Club for Nostalgia
Night, where they encounter some
very unusual characters – horny
granddads, old bags with dyed hair
and gilt shoes, along with Moreno
and Matteo.
Massimo Lolli (born in Milano
in 1960) has published a string
of novels. In 2009 Mondadori
released his Il lunedì arriva sempre
di domenica pomeriggio.
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LITERARY FICTION
288 pages September 2012
Bruno Pedretti
La sinfonia delle cose mute
The symphony of silent things
The universal power of music in four stories tied together by the Beethoven’s Ninth.
On March 29th 1827, in Vienna,
the entire city seems to have come
together to say goodbye to Ludwig
Van Beethoven. Gerhard, the
composer’s faithful friend, is also
among the crowd. He is the only
one who shared his friend’s final
painful days.
In 1872, the young Mori Noboru
returns to Tokyo after having spent
five years in Europe studying its
“barbaric” culture. His discovery
of Western music was so powerful
that he decided to buy a piano and
have it shipped to Japan.
However, Noboru’s desire to
renovate his country’s culture is met
by the anger of the traditionalists,
who opposed Japan’s opening up to
the West.
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1947. Shortly after his denazification process, the great
conductor Wilhem Furtwangler
finally returns to Berlin. There,
he receives the visit of a Japanese
man, Abe Takeshi Beethoven, Mori
Noboru’s nephew, who tells him the
magical and fascinating story of the
first performance of Beethoven’s
Ninth in Japan.
In a South American city at
the beginning of the 2000s,
preparations are made for the last
concert of another great conductor:
Jonas Weger. The maestro will
conduct a very unique version of
Beethoven’s Ninth, for on stage there
will be the deaf boys of the “Silencio
Musical” choir.
Bruno Pedretti, writer and
essayist, lives in Milan. In addition
to books on art and aesthetics, he
has published the novels Charlotte.
La morte e la fanciulla (Giuntina,
1998) and Patmos (Marinotti,
2008). He teaches theory of art and
architecture at the University of
Lugano.
LITERARY FICTION
228 pages October 2012
Ugo Riccarelli
L’amore graffia il mondo
Love Scratches The World
A literary gem
A compelling novel and a strong
emotional story, skillfully written
by a wonderful writer with a gift for
characterization.
The daughter of a stationmaster and
a peasant, Signorina was born at the
beginning of the 20s in small town
in central Italy. In her mother’s
opinion, reading and writing were
not activities suitable for a young
girl. Nevertheless, her father
decides to send her to school. After
the fifth grade, however, Signorina
has to give up her studies, in spite of
her teacher’s advice, who recognizes
her intelligence and her potential.
The encounter with a mysterious
Asian man, who with two quick
movements of the hand can
transform a swatch of material
into an origami dress for a doll,
provides Signorina’s creativity with
an unexpected outlet.
She learns to sew and, as if by magic,
creates beautiful clothes with a few
snipes of her scissors. However, her
life is struck by war and love: she
gives birth to a gravely ill son, to
whom she dedicates all her energy,
convinced that love can overcome
anything, fix everything.
Mixing autobiographical and
historical elements with the
imagination of a great writer,
Riccarelli paints for the reader
the unforgettable portrait of an
exceptional woman.
Ugo Riccarelli (born near Turin
in 1954) lives in Rome and
made his debut in 1995 with the
novel Le scarpe appese al cuore.
Mondadori has published L’angelo
di Coppi (2001), Il dolore perfetto
(2004, which won the 2004
Strega Prize ), Un mare di nulla
(2006), Comallamore (2009), La
Repubblica di un solo giorno ( 2011).
Among his foreign publishers:
Hanser, De Arbeiderspers,
Plon, Maeva, Kastaniotis,
Munhakdongne, Baltos Lankos.
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LITERARY FICTION
372 pages February 2012
Tea Ranno
La sposa vermiglia
The Vermilion Bride
An unforgettable tale of love and honour
Sicily, 1926. Vincenzina Sparviero is
the attractive but fragile daughter in
a noble Sicilian family. In town they
murmur that she doesn’t have the
strength to become a mother.
She is presumed sterile, but old Don
Ottavio Licata doesn’t seem to give
a hoot. A marriage of convenience
is arranged between the meek and
obedient “dove” and the sixtysomething fascist and mafioso.
One spring afternoon, however,
once their engagement has been
made public, Vincenzina suddenly
discovers love in the amber eyes of
Filippo Gonzales.
In the slow and inexorable descent
that leads to the fateful wedding day,
tragedy looms…
The story of a burning passion
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brought to life by an unforgettable
cast of characters: in a Sicilian
landscape rich of all its flavors,
the author masterfully plumbs the
depths of love and grief.
A vibrant intriguing book enriched
by a passionate love story.
Tea Ranno (born in 1963 in
Siracusa) holds a degree in Law.
She is the author of Cenere (2006)
and In una lingua che non so più
dire (2007), both published by e/o.
LITERARY FICTION
300 pages September 2012
Widad Tamimi
Il caffè delle donne
Women’s Coffee
Two worlds, two cultures, two roots that must grow together to become a woman
Coffee is a mainstay in Qamar’s
life: the robust espresso drunk by
her mother, softened with a splash
of milk, the way her husband takes
it, or boiled three times, bitter and
spiced with cardamom, the way she
used to drink in Jordan.
From an early age, Qamar found
herself suspended between two
worlds: she would spend winters,
her everyday life, in Milan and
summers in Amman, Jordan, living
with her father’s Muslim family,
playing in the street with a gang
of rambunctious kids, until she
turned thirteen, officially becoming
a woman. Removed from all contact
with the opposite sex, Qamar begins
to painfully realize the differences
between the two cultures to which
she belongs. And yet, in the white
mornings spent with the women of
her family, she is initiated into the
absolute magic of the ancient coffee
ritual: grandmothers, aunts, sisters,
and sisters-in-law gathered in the
living room, chatting, sipping the
scolding beverage and preparing to
learn their destiny. However, only
one of them is chosen each day to
have the bottom of her cup read
by Khalto Sherin, who sees, in the
grinds, the secrets of the heart and
the future.
Years later, Qamar will feel the
need to return to her roots and to
remember the words she heard long
ago, that day she saw her own life in
the bottom of a coffee cup…
Widad Tamimi was born in 1981.
She is the daughter of a Palestinian
refugee who fled the Israeli
occupation of 1967. Her mother
comes from a Jewish family that
escaped to New York during World
War II. She grew up in Milan.
Women’s Coffee is her first novel.
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LITERARY FICTION
252 pages March 2012,
Alberto Bevilacqua
Roma Califfa
Caliphal Rome
Rome described by a great Italian writer
“Rome, the bizarre”, “Rome, the
venerable”, “Rome, the legendary”,
“Rome, the lowdown”, “Rome, the
multifaceted”... Roma Califfa is, and
could not be otherwise, the Rome of
Alberto Bevilacqua.
Born in Parma but an adopted
Roman, Bevilacqua has for many
years been a columnist on all
things Roman for the Italian
daily “Il Messaggero”. Here is a
collection of some of his most witty
and curious tales, brimming with
anger, nostalgia, melancholy and
inspiration.
Memories from his younger days
when he worked the local crime
beat for “Il Messaggero”, reflections
on ancient and medieval Rome,
the post-war boom years and the
18
glory days of Cinecittà, as well
as several scathing pieces on the
torments of contemporary Rome.
He brings alive places, people and
conversations with famous actors,
such as Ugo Tognazzi and Alberto
Sordi, directors such as Orson
Welles and Federico Fellini, and
writers Giancarlo Fusco, Domenico
Rea, Ennio Flaiano.
An intriguing and poignant portrait
of a city.
Alberto Bevilacqua, born in Parma
in 1934, is one of Italy’s best known
authors and the author of a large
number of novels, all bestsellers and
winners of Italy’s most prestigious
literary prizes.
LITERARY FICTION
168 pages October 2012
Nadia Fusini
La figlia del sole
The Daughter of the Sun
A daredevil life in the name of writing: the life of Katherine Mansfield
Born in New Zealand at the
beginning of the 20th Century,
Katherine Mansfield moves to
England, her second home, where
she spends her brief life traveling,
loving, and writing without holding
back.
First stricken by syphilis and then
by tuberculosis, she is close to the
most important intellectuals of
her day. At the same time, she is
on eternal exile; she is eternally
“out of place.” Katherine writes
extraordinary pages that will
make her one of the most beloved
narrators of the century: as she
writes she wastes away, and writing
keeps her alive, as if ceasing to write
implied surrendering to the evil
that eats at her.
Hers is a brief life, extremely
unhappy but alight with the flames
of an absolute vitality, with the
courage of a girl who knows how to
face the vertigo of an existence lived
without holding back – all of this
constitutes an incredible mirror
against which we should measure
ourselves.
Nadia Fusini entrusts two siblings,
a brother and sister, with the task
of narrating Katherine’s story in
a moving, fast-paced dialogue, of
telling how this absolute girl finally
found peace in the most eccentric
place in the world, a few miles
outside Paris.
Nadia Fusini teaches English
literature at the Università La
Sapienza in Rome. She gained the
attention of critics and readers
first through her vast production
of essays and then through her
novels, among which Mondadori
has published L’amor vile ( 1999), Lo
specchio di Elisabetta (2002), I volti
dell’amore (2003), Possiedo la mia
anima (2006), L’amore necessario
(2008). In 2011 Mondadori has also
published her monograph entitled
Di vita si muore. Lo spettacolo delle
passioni nel teatro di Shakespeare.
19
NARRATIVE NON-FICTION
444 pages August 2012
Guido Conti
Il grande fiume Po
The great po river
A literary journey along the wonderful and sometimes unknown path of the longest Italian river
A journey from the source of the
Po to its delta. Landscapes, moods,
encounters, bizarre characters,
the reflections of a traveler who
narrates his own land with pietas
and humor, retracing the history
of the literature born on the banks
of the great Po river. The myths
blossom in different historical
times, from the classical era of
Virgil, to the theater of the Este
courts in the 1400s, to today,
surprising the reader at every turn.
A concrete journey through the
imagination of a river, the Po, that
touches cities and areas such as
Turin, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio,
Modena, Cremona, Mantova,
Ferrara, all the way to the delta,
tracing the blue line of a path
20
that unearths the fables of Ovid,
Virgil, Petrarch, Folengo, Ariosto,
juxtaposing them against today’s
writers. We begin with the Turin
of Pavese, Calvino, Soldati, Salgari,
and Gozzano, then move to the Bassa
[lowlands] of Guareschi, Zavattini,
Celati, Cavazzoni and Pederiali,
and finally reach Bassani’s Ferrara
and the extraordinary poems of
Raffaello Baldini, Tonino Guerra,
and Federico Fellini’s Rimini.
An adventure which digs into
history, searching for the sources
of a river’s tales and aims at
reconstructing a human and literary
geography, both modern and
ancient, for the new millennium.
Guido Conti was born in 1965 in
Parma, where he lives and works. He
is the author of two literary novels
published by Guanda, Il coccodrillo
sull’altare (1998) and I cieli di
vetro (1999). With Mondadori he
published in 2010 the delicate
novel of a female friendship Le
mille bocche della nostra sete, whose
rights were sold in the Netherlands
(De Bezige Bij) and in Spain (Suma
de Letras).
NARRATIVE NON-FICTION
192 pages September 2012
Francesco Palmieri
Il libro napoletano dei morti
The Neapolitan Book of the Dead
An enthralling reconstruction of the history of Naples: the prequel to Gomorra
The time between the unification
of Italy and the First World War was
the darkest and most marvelous
era in the history of Naples. The
adventurous tales of foreign
captains defending the Bourbons
interweave with the stories of the
Camorra, Italy’s oldest criminal
organization, and its influence over
the Italian state during the years of
the Belle Epoque. Criminals hide
among artists, singers, dancers,
movers, shakers, and sinister faces.
While the Great War wages on,
a shocking murder in the town
galleria reveals that the Camorra is
transforming into a stronger, more
far-reaching organization: it is the
prequel to Gomorra.
Main character of this book is the
Neapolitan poet, Ferdinando Russo,
who narrates the saga as it unfolds.
Though he was once involved in the
underworld of organized crime,
complete with money and women
to spare, Russo renounced his ties
to take up journalism. But once he
begins to document his experiences
with the crime ring, he is drawn
back into its grasp and must once
again decide where his loyalties lay.
Francesco Palmieri (born in Naples
in 1962) is a renowned journalist,
having written Sole, Luna e Talia.
Magia e misteri a Napoli (1984) and
Vite pericolose: Uomini e fantasmi
delle arti marziali (2009).
21
short stories
176 pages January 2012
Andrea Camilleri
Il diavolo, certamente
The Devil, of Course
Thirty-three diabolical short stories
A collection of thirty-three short
stories of five pages each which
form however a choral novel, a
“human comedy” on vices and
virtues, each story ending in an
unexpected, diabolical way.
In each tale, the devil plays an
unequivocal role, and it’s up to
the readers to pronounce the
sentence, where there’s good and
where there’s evil. Not an easy task.
Because these stories, beyond their
irresistible amusement, are also rife
with unyielding, subtle meditation
on the meaning of human destinies,
our obsession with deception and
appearance, our idea of happiness.
An absolute jewel, a “human
comedy” and a series of musical
variations on the theme of evil,
22
concentrated in pages of stunningly
contagious energy.
Once again Camilleri displays all the
storytelling skills that have made
him an internationals bestseller.
Andrea Camilleri (born in Porto
Empedocle in 1925) is the author
of the spectacularly successful
Montalbano mystery series and
many other novel set in Sicily. His
Montalbano series have been made
into an Italian TV series.
He is one of the most translated
Italian authors in the world.
LITERARY FICTION
160 pages February 2012
Alberto Cavanna
L’uomo che non contava i giorni
The Man who didn’t Count the Days
A friendship in the name of the sea
An old axe master and a young man,
his eyes full of fear and desire, who
came to Italy on a boat from Tunisia.
Unexpectedly the two forge a strong
bond, as if age and geography were
powerless: they share in common
the same passion for the sea.
Mohammed helps the old man
to complete the construction of a
small, lightweight fishing boat that’s
solid enough for distant sailing, to
take him far from this beautiful land
spoiled by the pettiness of men – a
land that he loves immensely, but
one that has stripped him of his joy.
For his part, Mohammed dreams of
returning to the amber light and the
scents of the African coasts…
On a moonlit night, sure hands
guide the boat silently to shore: an
extraordinary adventure is about to
get underway.
A gripping, strangely sweet tale,
remarkable and exquisitely
rendered. This book will break your
heart and open your understanding
to a very different kind of life in our
very same world.
Alberto Cavanna, born in 1961 in
Albissola, comes from a family of
ship builders and craftsmen. He is
the author of the novels Bacicio do
Tin (2004) and Da bosco e da riviera
(2008).
Rights sold in France to La Fosse
aux Ours.
23
LITERARY FICTION
144 pages February 2012
Francesco Guccini
Dizionario delle cose perdute
Dictionary of Small Lost Things
Guccini’s personal “amarcord”
Once upon a time... A journey into
our recent past to rediscover the
little things that accompanied our
childhood and that are now almost
forgotten. The author digs into his
memory and tribute a great homage
to memories and emotions, that
seems irremediably lost and to
which he gives new voice and life.
Each chapter is dedicated to an
object, starting from the cover of
this little book which recalls a very
popular cigarette brand (no longer
available). Widely described are
the toys of his childhood, a time
where Playstation did not exist and
children used to play wild on the
streets.
Other chapters are dedicated to the
discovery of chewing gum and of
24
the Flit, a powerful insecticide, the
product to kill flies and mosquitoes,
a real revolution for the time.
Halfway between a novel and a
memoir, it’s a sort of amarcord and
an insightful meditation on our
age where practically everything
revolves around speed and
convenience.
Francesco Guccini (born in
Bologna in 1940) is a singersongwriter loved by more than
one generation.
Among his recent books: Croniche
epifaniche (1989), Cittanova
blues (2003), Icaro (2008) and
Malastagione (2011).
UPMARKET COMMERCIAL FICTION
192 pages May 2012
Giuseppina Torregrossa
Panza e prisenza
Yourself and Your Appetite
Crime over dinner
Palermo. A blazing hot summer.
Two cops who couldn’t be any more
different from each other: Sasà,
mellow to the point of indolence,
and Marò, his old classmate and
still his best friend, an alluring and
strong-willed woman.
During their routine, the chief
assigns Sasà the task of hunting
down a Mafia boss that has been
on the lam for years, while Marò
is currently involved in the biggest
investigation of her career so far.
The two cases evolve in parallel
over the weeks, punctuated by
Marò’s delicious meals as they talk
and discover even more about each
other. Before each dinner, Sasà
asks her the conventional question,
“What can I bring?” Marò replies
with flashing eyes, “Nothing, Sasà –
just yourself and your appetite.”
Each dinner is one step forward for
their respective investigations and
another step backward in the game
of seduction…
Giuseppina Torregrossa (born in
Palermo in 1956) has worked as a
gynecologist for 20 years and she
is the author of the bestseller Il
conto delle minne (2009), the rights
of which were sold in Germany
(Hoffmann und Campe),
Netherlands (Orlando), France
(Lattes), Israel (Kinneret),
Spain (Maeva), Turkey (Dogan)
and Brasil (Suma de Letras).
25
commercial FICTION
324 pages August 2012
Alessandro defilippi
La paziente n. 9
Patient n.9
An alarming thriller set in a lunatic asylum during WW2
Look your killer in the eye and he’ll
be damned forever.
A young German psychiatrist with
piercing blue eyes hides a terrible
secret. He works in a massive
asylum by the sea, on the Ligurian
coast, in a peaceful pine grove where
one of his patients is a beautiful and
beloved woman who falls prey to a
dark demon that compels her to
paint strange signs on the wall in
her own blood.
Suddenly a series of gory murders
breaks the normal life, whereas the
shadows of the Second World War
are looming over everything like
the black wings of a great folly.
And ECT has just become popular:
electroconvulsive
therapy.
Electroshock.
26
A thriller that plumbs the depths
of love and fear staring directly in
their eyes.
A pageturning novel and at the
same time a painful and accurate
investigation of the lies of the
human mind and of the moral
strenght necessary to disclose them.
Alessandro Defilippi lives in Turin
and is a psychoanalyst .
Among his books : Locus anima
(1999), Angeli (2002) and Le perdute
tracce degli dei [(2008) . In 2011 he
participated in the project Il romanzo
di Roma (a series of historical novels
dedicated to ancient Rome) with the
volume Danubio rosso .
commercial FICTION
300 pages October 2012
Valerio Evangelisti
Gli ultimi giorni della tortuga
The last days of the tortuga
The last, exhilarating episode in the “Pirate Trilogy”
1697. Imposing fleets sail the
Caribbean seas once more. King
Louis XIV is engaged in yet another
conflict that has drained the State’s
coffers. To find the gold necessary
to end the Nine Years’ War, he
decides to attempt an assault on
Cartagena, one of the richest cities
of the Spanish empire across the
sea. Leading the expedition is
admiral De Pointis, who knows
that in order to succeed in such a
crazy undertaking he must enlist
the Filibusta’s help. But the only
person capable of assembling the
legendary Brothers of the Coasts,
scattered across the mountains
of the Hispaniola island, is the
governor Ducasse, the ex-slave
trader, rogue with a heart of gold,
and fearless adventurer.
The capture of Cartagena will
increase the tension between De
Pointis and Ducasse, between
the Brothers of the Coasts and
the Kings’ troops, making for an
exciting and unexpected final twist,
in which every feud left unresolved
throughout the “Pirate Trilogy” –
which began with Tortuga (2008),
and continued in Veracruz (2009)
– will come to an end.
Valerio evangelisti (born in 1952
in Bologna), historian, started in
1992 the publication of the series
of novel dedicated to the medieval
Inquisitor Eymerich – fantastic
and tolkeniesque – translated
by Rivages, Heyne, Grijalbo,
Asa, Conrad, Allfa, Znak, Mlada
Fronta . Besides the Eymerich
saga, he has published Antracite
(2003), Noi saremo tutto ( 2004) ,
Il collare di fuoco (2006) , Il collare
spezzato (2007). He is the editor
of the website Carmilla: www.
carmillaonline.com.
27
commercial FICTION
372 pages March 2012
Barbara Frale
La lingua segreta degli dei
The Secret Language of the Gods
An archeological expedition in the sahara, in the shadow of nazism
Rome, 1938. Alessandro Borghesi, a
young mining engineer, is hired to
take part in an archeological dig at
the Siwah oasis in Egypt.
Upon his arrival in Cairo, Borghesi
realizes soon enough that the
archeological mission is rife with
snags.
He learns that German professor
Hans Brunner, in charge of
a previous expedition, had
accidentally discovered the
existence of oil – half the deposit
lying under Italian territory in
colonized Libya, the other half in
Egypt, now under British control.
Remarkable economic and
political interests are underlying,
as well as the involvement of the
beautiful Elisabeth Rosenheim,
28
an Egyptologist and student of
Professor Brunner. In love with the
young woman, Alessandro learns
that Elisabeth, of Hebrew origins,
was saved by Brunner from Nazi
persecution.
In getting to know her, the young
Italian engineer discovers that
access to oil is not the archeological
mission’s only aim.
Barbara Frale (born in Viterbo in
1970) is a historian of the Catholic
Church and Christian society, an
archeologist, paleographer and
an expert in ancient documents.
She is the author of Il principe e il
pescatore (2010).
commercial FICTION
296 pages October 2012
Nicola Oddati
Il teorema della corda
The Rope Theorem
University of Naples’s math professor Pietro Maiorana d’Altomonte leads his first investigation
It’s the beginning of a new political
season for the City of Naples that
has stirred enthusiasm and great
expectations all over, also thanks to
the newly elected and charismatic
Mayor. Yet three very suspicious
suicides, one after another, upset
the government buildings and the
upper middle class salons: on top
of that all three victims are found
hanged. The police commissioner
in charge turns to two very unique
consultants for help: Agatino
Dell’Aquila, a well known lawyer
in town, and a friend of his, Pietro
Maiorana di Altomonte, a young man
with Sicilian origins who teaches
mathematics at the University. Even
more fascinating international
characters – like Pietro Maiorana’s
attractive Japanese girlfriend –
interact and connect with these
two amateur investigators but
also local figures from the most
traditional and stiff Naples. Each
one of them is involved in a cruel
power struggle, that takes place on
a battlefield made up by great works
of art and the archistars’ sites, and
bringing to light all those different
souls, parallel and interwoven, that
have been coexisting since forever
in the city.
Only math, along with its daring
hypotheses, will be able to stop the
serial deaths that are suffocating the
whole city...
Nicola Oddati (Salerno) has been
the Alderman for Culture in the
town of Naples.
This is the first in a series of novels
dedicated to math professor Pietro
Maiorana d’Altomonte.
29
UPMARKET commercial FICTION
250 pages November 2012
Margherita Oggero
Un colpo all’altezza del cuore
A shot to the heart
Two murders, two investigations, two women. Prof. Camilla Baudino’s latest case
One winter morning, after taking
her bassethound for a walk,
professor Camilla Baudino is on her
way to school when she witnesses
someone settling a score: at the
intersection of two peaceful streets
in Turin, a motorcyclist kills, with
one shot, the driver of a car stopped
at the light.
A few hours later, at the police
station, commissioner Gaetano
Berardi is taking the professor’s
statement: the two haven’t seen each
other in months, but the memory
of the attraction that pushed them
dangerously close to love has yet to
fade…
Not far away, in the quiet town of
Chivasso, Francesca – a young
hospital doctor – also receives a
30
call from the police. One of her
most “loyal” patients has been
barbarically slain. Yet fate has it that
this isn’t the first homicide to touch
Francesca’s life.
A new investigation involving the
most beloved professor-detective
in Italy: intelligent, curious and
obsessive, Camilla is pulled in a
hundred directions by the demands
of husband, child, mother, dog
and career, she is a believable and
sympathetic figure to most women
of a certain age. Oggero’s prose clever, sharp and breezy - describes
the human comedy of quotidian
reality with a self-irony and humour
that makes this mistery more than
that, a bittersweet comedy.
Margherita Oggero lives in Turin.
She has taught in almost all kinds of
schools. In 2002 she published her
first novel in the Camilla Baudino’s
series , La collega tatuata, followed
by Una piccola bestia ferita (2003),
L’amica americana (2005) and
Qualcosa da tenere per sé (2007).
All these novels have become
highly successful TV-movies. She
is also the author of Risveglio a Parigi
(2009) and of L’ora di pietra (2011).
Among her foreign publishers:
Piper, Albin Michel, Ripol,
Presença, DVA
UPMARKET commercial FICTION
252 pages April 2012
Anna Vera Sullam
Undici stelle risplendenti
Eleven Shining Stars
A compelling Venetian romance
This year Vittoria is in charge
of the Seder, the Jewish feast in
celebration of Passover. Laying out
the table, baking the unleavened
matzah, the preparation of the
maror – bitter herbs – and the kid,
along with traditional sweets, is all
a joyful task, as well as a chance to
take her mind off the man who for
some time now has made her heart
beat with excitement – for the first
time after so many years of being
happily married to Giacomo.
Each of the guests brings to the
magnificent dinner table his or
her own past, hidden thoughts
and desires. From the secret love
story of old aunt Angelina, who
courageously faced the war years
and persecution, to the dilemmas
pressing the families of the new
millennium and its globalized
precariousness – three generations
comparing notes on the Hebrew
roots they share and the meaning
of existence over the course of an
evening destined to change the lives
of all those present.
A richly depicted portrait of three
generations of a contemporary
Venetian family.
Anna Vera Sullam (born in
Venice) is a professor of Italian at
University Ca’ Foscari in Venice.
She is the author of I nomi dello
sterminio, published by Einaudi.
31
commercial FICTION
456 pages May 2012
Patrizia Tamà
La profezia di Michelangelo
Michelangelo’s Prophecy
Beatrice Maureeno’s latest investigation
Vatican City, 1991. Art Restorer
Gabriel De Leon is stunned to find
a face just like his in a fresco he has
just uncovered.
It was a face among the hundreds
that appear in the Last Judgement,
painted several centuries before his
birth.
Gabriel is a renowned art restorer
who has spent years working on
the frescos of the Sistine Chapel,
but after this disturbing discovery,
his life will never be the same. Pablo
Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Francesco
Borromini and Napoleon are just
a few of the characters De Leon
will discover among the faces in
Michelangelo’s greatest work from
the sixteenth century, and will lead
others to question his sanity.
32
A few years later the researcher
Beatrice Maureeno, famous for
having tracked down Dante’s fourth
cantica, receives a message from
Gabriel De Leon, but as soon as
she opens the envelope, she faints
and is seized by a vision. When she
wakes, the message is gone and De
Leon is found dead in a psychiatric
ward...
Michelangelo’s Prophecy is a ruthless
thriller that offers an original
interpretation of Michelangelo’s
masterpiece.
Patrizia Tama, who was born in
Modena, now lives and works in
Milan. She is a freelance journalist
and has published Italia ti ascolto
(1991) and her first novel, La Quarta
Cantica (2010).
commercial FICTION
320 pages March 2012
Cinzia Tani
Il bacio della dionea
The Kiss of the dionea
A terrible secret hidden under a passion for botany
Padua, January 1, 1900. It’s a foggy
morning when young Simone, who
has sneaked out of the house to show
his friend Betty his new slingshot,
disappears. A few days later his
lifeless body is found in a local
park, buried beneath the snow. An
itinerant painter is blamed for the
crime, while the true killer, Giada,
Betty’s older sister, is protected by
their mother. Giada, full of energy
and known for her bossiness,
merely wanted the slingshot for
herself and involuntarily strangled
the boy.
Oppressed by this terrible secret,
Giada grows and becomes ever more
overbearing. Yet, she is also fragile
and certain that she will never
deserve happiness. She has taken
up her father’s love for botany and
driven by her passion, one day
she sets out for Mexico with her
husband, an orchid hunter. Soon
after their arrival, her husband
dies and she meets up with the
handsome revolutionary Lucas
Rivera Mansi.
Cinzia Tani (born in Rome in 1958)
is a journalist,author of Assassine
(1998), Coppie assassine (1999),
Nero di Londra (2001), Amori crudeli
(2003), and the best-selling novels
L’insonne (2005), Sole e ombra (2007,
Selezione Campiello Award) and Lo
stupore del mondo (2009).
33
commercial FICTION
216 pages April 2012
Silvia Tesio
Piacere, io sono Gauss
I’m Gauss, Pleased to Meet You
A light-hearted comedy on the value of truth and family bonds
Gauss is ten years old and always
tells the truth. It’s his trademark,
an original take on the domineering
attitude of his bizarre and
deconstructed family, in which each
member has a different last name
and blood ties seem to melt like
snow in the sun.
Gauss is the only male in the house,
an insolent daredevil who causes
trouble that proves embarrassing
even for the adults, as he hollers out
the most unappealing truths in their
faces, ever loyal to his vocation.
Any excuse is good when it comes
to tormenting his mother so that
he might at long last learn who
his father is – the man’s identity
has always been kept secret from
him. Matilde, his mom, has always
34
refused to discuss the matter, while
Olimpia, the grandmother, is forced
out of loyalty to her daughter to not
reveal a thing.
When the family moves to the
small city of Casale Monferrato and
teenage Leonora gets pregnant, the
situation deteriorates.
Silvia Tesio (born in Turin in
1970) works as a copywriter. She
made her debut in 2009 with Te lo
dico in un orecchio.
Rights sold in Spain to
Debolsillo/ RHM.
NOVELIZED BIOGRAPHY
180 pages October 2012
Alfonso Signorini
Amore, folle amore
Love, crazy love
Passion, luxury, torment. An extraordinary love story brought back into the spotlight
They met at dance party: she, the
most courted girl in Alabama
and he, a young officer. Between
them is born an all-consuming
and tormented love from the very
beginning. A love so legendary
it makes the couple of Zelda and
Francis Scott Fitzgerald an integral
part of the “roaring Twenties” myth.
They are beautiful, successful, and
bound by a strong passion. But
theirs is a story that always borders
on insanity. Between Heaven and
Hell. Furious arguments, jealousies,
and malice alternate with moments
of complete happiness, sweetness,
and tenderness.
It’s a passion that consumes them,
destroys them, pushing Zelda to
madness and Francis to alcoholism.
Alfonso Signorini is the editor of
the weekly magazine “Chi” , the
leading Italian gossip magazine.
With Mondadori, he has published
the novelized biographies of the
three great icons of our age: Troppo
fiera, troppo fragile. Il romanzo della
Callas (2007), Chanel. Una vita da
favola (2009) and Marilyn. Vivere e
morire d’amore (2010).
Among his foreign publishers:
Lumen,
Record. Rocher,
Psichogios, Weltbild Polska,
Ripol, Dom Quixote, Narodna
Knijga, Humanitas.
Yet the two still search for each
other, hate each other, and love
each other for a lifetime, for like his
Gatsby, Fitzgerald “believes in the
green light” and the two continue to
“beat on, boats against the current,
borne back ceaselessly into the
past.”
In Love, Crazy Love, Alfonso
Signorini transforms one of the
most romantic and tumultuous love
stories of all time into a captivating
popular novel.
35
non FICTION
250 pages October 2012
Alberto Angela
L’amore ai tempi dell’antica Roma
Love in the Time of Ancient Rome
Love and sex in the time of Augustus, from the author who made us all feel like ancient Romans
Marriage and divorce, male and
female prostitution, eunuchs and
homosexuals, orgies and brothels,
contraceptives and aphrodisiacs,
polygamy and adultery, positions
and sex toys... it all comes to life in
Love in the time of ancient Rome.
After spending 24 hours in the
daily life of the ancient Romans
in A day in the Life of Ancient Rome,
after having followed a coin across
the Empire in Empire, after more
than half a million copies sold in
Italy and a great number of foreign
translations, Alberto Angela is back
with a new book full of wonders,
intrigues and surprises.
Love in the Time of Ancient Rome
immerses you in the best and worst
of ancient love lives, told with great
36
simplicity, warmth, and accuracy.
He breathes life into history’s
intimate aspects, paying homage
to that history made not by
great figures but by individuals,
those citizens whose daily habits
contributed to the grandeur and
power of the Roman Empire.
Every detail is documented after
rigorous study and research, but the
fascination of the story is equal to
that of the most successful novels.
You’ll find that even ancient history
can become a bestseller.
Alberto Angela (born in Paris
in 1962) hosts two of Italy’s most
popular science TV programs.
In 2007 he published with
Mondadori Una giornata nell’antica
Roma (300,000 copies sold) and in
2010 Impero (300,000 copies sold).
Rights sold in Germany (Riemann/
RH), Spain (Esfera de los Libros),
US+UK (Europa Editions), Russia
(Atticus), Japan (Kawade-Shobo),
PR China (Science Academy),
Bulgaria (Colibri), Taiwan
(Cité Publ.), Lituania (Tyto Alba),
Finland (Art House).
non FICTION
248 pages September 2012
Simonetta Cerrini
L’apocalisse dei Templari
The templars’ apocalypse
Mission and destiny of the still mysterious religious Order of Knights
Simonetta Cerrini, a mediaevalist
famous worldwide for her studies on
the Templars, uncovers the Knights
Templars’ true view of the world,
not only back in the days when the
Order was established, but also
during the years when it reached the
height of success in the Holy Land
and all over Europe – starting from
the great symbolical fresco that can
be found in the Templar Church of
San Bevignate, in Perugia.
“The Templars rose during a period
of deep crisis – both personal and
collective: after the conquest of the
earthly Jerusalem, they felt lost,
without a destination, deprived
of the road towards the celestial
Jerusalem. Their world was over.
What gave them the strength to keep
going was the belief that: They need
us”.
History, iconography, the
contemporary intellectuals and
theologians’ statements, as well
as the books read and those
translated for the Templars (like
the French monk Adsone’s text on
the Antichrist), the precious relics
that they obtained (not least the
Holy Shroud), all prove that the
Templar’s cavalry arose under an
apocalyptic perspective.
We are drawing to a close of an era,
too. The Templars might, perhaps,
show us the way.
Simonetta Cerrini, a mediaevalist,
in 1998 gave a dissertation about
the Knights Templars for her PhD
thesis at the Sorbonne University,
which included a critic edition of
their “Rule”. She is the author of
several articles on this matter, all
quoted in the Templars’ official
bibliography. With Mondadori she
published La rivoluzione dei Templari
(2008).
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non FICTION
296 pages September 2012
Marco Santagata
Dante
The “novel” of Dante’s life
This powerful book by Marco
Santagata, the greatest Dante
expert in Italy, makes up – in
the Dante literature scenario – a
precious and enjoyable novelty,
for many reasons. First of all, it is
the passionate story, the “novel”, of
Dante’s tormented existence. But it
is also the documented portrait of
a man passionately involved in the
public and cultural life of Florence,
his town, and of the complex
dynamics of Italy’s history between
the years 1200 and 1300 (the
Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, White
and Black, the main actors in what
became an irreconcilable conflict
between Papacy and Empire, the
“suns” of Dante’s philosophicalpolitical universe).
38
Thanks to the great intertwining
of both historical and private
events, the ability to transform
even the most ephemeral traces
into meaningful clues, and the
masterful command of the sources,
Santagata is able to reach the double
aim of reassembling, as best as
possible, Dante’s overall picture
as a father, philosopher, poet, a
courter and party man, and analyze
each single work of his by taking
into consideration the particular
historical and biographical context
in which the author conceived it and
gave birth to it.
Marco Santagata is a writer, literary
critic, college professor. He is one of
the leading Italianists and scholars
of Dante and Petrarca.
non FICTION
732 pages May 2012
Rosario Villari
Un sogno di libertà
Dream of Freedom
The decline of the Neapolitan empire, 1585-1648
An important essay that penetrates
the deepest crevices of 17th-century
Neapolitan society and politics as
the author reconstructs the history
of southern Italy at that time, with
respect to the Spanish monarchy’s
worldwide empire. He breaks from
a tenaciously long tradition when he
demonstrates that Spanish
dominion did not meet solely passive
reactions, inertia, provincialism
and primitive forms of rebellion
in southern Italy. The “dream of
freedom” – analyzed in these pages
on the basis of a staggering amount
of documentation – was a real
movement that saw the involvement
of populations and individuals, men
and women, linked ideally, amid the
tumult of the Thirty Years’ War, to
the reformist currents in modern
Europe’s major cities, including
those in Spain itself. This winning
tale, packed with exceptional events
and personalities, culminates with
the surprising and monumental
revolution of 1647 in Naples.
A key work on the history of
southern Italy of the 1600s.
rosario villari is one of the most
highly regarded living Italian
historians specialized in 17thcentury Naples. He is the author
of a long list of historical essays
and of the most widely used history
books in Italy’s high schools today.
39
non FICTION
90 pages September 2012
Oscar Niemeyer
Il mondo è ingiusto
The World is not Fair
The last lesson by a great sage of our epoch
104 years old and completely
engaged, energetic and very
charming : Oscar Niemeyer is,
without a doubt, the most famous
architect alive. But Niemeyer is also
a contemporary humanist, an anticonformist thinker who has always
reconciled his moral and civil
engagement with his passion for
beauty. This slim and yet powerful
book contains his latest reflections.
The World is not Fair is a collection
of the thoughts of a great sage of
our epoch, according to whom
“nothing is important, people
are important, not architecture.”
He writes about old age, politics,
society, art, and the encounters with
the protagonists of two centuries,
from Fidel Castro to Jean Paul
40
Sartre, from Le Corbusier to André
Malraux, from Luis Carlos Prestes
to Giorgio Mondadori, by whom
he was charged with designing
the Italian headquarters of the
publishing house Mondadori.
An important message for our
troubled times with an interesting
contribution by Alberto Riva.
Oscar Niemeyer was born in Rio
de Janeiro in 1907.
He is considered one of the bestknown and most important
representatives of modern
international architecture.
Alberto Riva (born in Milan in
1970) is an Italian journalist living
in Brasil. With Mondadori he
published the novel Sete (2011).
non FICTION
180 pages November 2012
Louis Godart
La Tavola Doria
Battle of Anghiari Tavola Doria
The story of the remarkable rediscovery of Leonardo da Vinci’s lost work
Battle of Anghiari Tavola Doria, a
masterpiece that many attribute
to Leonardo da Vinci, others to a
sixteenth century Tuscan painter,
will be displayed for the first time
ever in a special exhibition at the
Quirinal in November 2012.
This volume recounts the events
that led to the painting’s recovery
and discusses its interesting
history.
According to the author, the Tavola
Doria is the rough draft of Da Vinci’s
piece, the Battle of Anghiari, which
was made sometime between 1504
and 1505 in the Basilica of Santa
Maria Novella in Florence. The
Tavola Doria is where Leonardo first
experimented with the new type of
plaster he used in his later works.
The plaster on his draft was perfect,
but Da Vinci mixed the plaster too
far away from the heat source for his
fresco, causing the piece to “drip.”
As Giorgio Vasari described in
his Lives of the Artistists, Leonardo
abandoned the project soon
thereafter.
Louis Godart is an Italian
archaeologist of Belgian descent. He
teaches at the University Federico II
at Naples and is the Director for the
Conservation of Artistic Heritage
of the President of the Italian
Republic.
He is the author of numerous essays
and monographs.
41
non FICTION
264 pages February 2012
Folco Quilici
Relitti e tesori
Shipwrecks and treasures
Adventures and mysteries in the seas of the world
2012 seems to be, almost as a curse
of the sea, the year of shipwrecks.
The centennial of the Titanic as well
as the sinking of the Concordia off
the island of Giglio in Italy – the
biggest ship ever to be lost at sea –
have caught the attention of public
opinion regarding the giants built
by man that lost their the battle with
nature.
The famous “marine explorer”
Folco Quilici tells the riveting
stories of the many shipwrecks
that he has seen and photographed
during his long career spanning the
seas of the world.
From the most ancient means of
navigation on the Mediterranean to
the ships sunk during the Second
World War, from the submarines
42
to the planes that plunged into the
abyss, from the “poisoned ships” to
the sunken treasure like the Riace
Bronzes, the depths of the sea teem
with countless man-made objects
that are now abandoned and have
become part of a true marine
archeology. And behind every
shipwreck hides a mysterious and
fascinating story.
In his usual straightforward style
and aided by beautiful images –
the fruit of years of exploration
– Quilici accompanies the reader
on an underwater journey: a
spectacular immersion into where
nature’s power encounters human
technology.
Folco Quilici, traveler, writer,
and filmmaker, is the best-known
Italian narrator of the seas and
the continents. Among his books
published at Mondadori are the
essays: Mari del Sud ( 1991) , Il
mio Mediterraneo (1992), I miei
mari (1991) and Terre d’avventura
(2009), and the novels Cacciatori
di navi (1986), Cielo verde (1987),
Naufraghi (1988), Alta Profondità
(1999), L’abisso di Hatutu (2001),
Mare rosso (2002) , I serpenti di
Melqart (2003), La Fenice del Bajkal
( 2005) and Libeccio (2008).
non FICTION
159 pages November 2012
Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Diamo spazio al tempo
Let’s make space for time
The third volume in Odifreddi’s personal history of geometry
In this new book Piergiorgio
Odifreddi, after having investigated
ancient and modern geometry,
engages the contemporary research
in the field. We’ll see the emergence
of Einstein’s theory of relativity,
which would strongly challenge the
concept of space.
Schläfli, Poincaré, Perelman are the
names of some of the revolutionaries
– for indeed it was a revolution –
who shaped the hypothesis of a
space with more dimensions. The
hyper-cubes, the Möbius strip,
Klein’s bottle are some of the names
given to the curious objects devised
for visualizing some aspects of these
new geometric theories.
With his usual light and witty
approach, Odifreddi succeeds
Piergiorgio Odifreddi (born in
1950) studied mathematics in
Italy, the US, and the USSR. He
taught logic at the University of
Turin and at Cornell University.
He contributes to “la Repubblica”,
“L’Espresso” and “Le Scienze.”
With Mondadori, he has published
Matematico e impertinente (2007),
Il Club dei matematici solitari del prof.
Odifreddi (2009), Hai vinto, Galileo!
( 2009), C’è spazio per tutti (2010)
and I solidi ignoti ( 2011).
in the difficult task of making
them accessible to his audience
that, thanks to his mediation, can
understand one of the highest
abstractions of human intellect and
again transforms one of the worst
school nightmares for pupils of
every generation into an attractive
journey, full of surprises and
curiosities.
43
non FICTION
132 pages October 2012
Luciano De Crescenzo
Fosse ‘a Madonna!
madonna willing
Stories, graces apparitions of Jesus ‘Mother
Renowned Neapolitan author
Luciano De Crescenzo uses his
trademark humor and sense of
irony to describe the many faces
of the holiest of holy beings: the
Madonna. The people of Naples
have long revered the Madonna,
but their relationship goes beyond
simple faith as we know it.
In madonna willing, De Crescenzo
delves into his childhood memories
to examine the many amusing
ties between his people and the
Madonna, producing a work that is
somewhere between a hagiographic
treatise and a memoir that it as
enlightening as it is hilarious.
In more than thirty books Luciano
De Crescenzo has described the
more unusual and human face of
44
the Greek philosophers and the
Greek myths.
In this book he strips Holy Mother
her aura of sanctity to make her a
little more like us.
Luciano De Crescenzo (Naples,
1928) worked as an IBM engineer
for over twenty years and debuted
with his first book, Così parlò
Bellavista, in 1977. Since then he
has published over thirty books,
which have been translated in 19
languages in which he managed very
successfully to make philosophy
accessible to all.
non FICTION
250 pages October 2012
Maria Rita Parsi
Doni
Gifts
Everyday miracles by common people
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and
the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors
the servant and has forgotten the gift”.
Albert Einstein.
Any of us owns special gifts that for
some reason are kept hidden inside
and have been mystified, confused
and misunderstood. Only few
people realize how to use the special
gifts inside us and understand the
hidden, untapped power that can
help us in transforming pain, anger,
frustration, disease and any kind
of obstacles in an extraordinary
capability to acquire wealth and
well-being and achieving what
many would regard as impossible.
In this book Maria Rita Parsi reveals
this life-changing knowledge
and teaches you how to apply this
knowledge in your everyday life.
She introduces the reader to
the concept of “special gifts”
and focuses on how learning
to recognize the hidden powers
of our brain. She also analyses
and illustrates the phenomenon
through exemplary stories of people
reporting miraculous stories of
positive changes as a result.
An enriching guide, intuitive and
powerful, uplifting and full of
hope, which can really help you in
transforming your life.
Maria Rita Parsi is a writer and a
psychotherapist. She has weekly
columns in a number of newspapers
and magazines. Her most recent
books, all published by Mondadori,
are: L’amore violato (1996), L’amore
dannoso (1999), Fragile come un
maschio (2000), Single per sempre
(2007) and Ingrati (2011).
45
humour book
168 pages February 2012
Marcello D’Orta
’A voce d’ ’e creature
Children’s Voices
How naples kids see camorra
’A voce d’e creature is a foundation
that, inside the confiscated villa
of a mafia boss, takes in dozens of
children from the poorest areas
of Naples and the surrounding
area. Don Luigi Merola leads this
courageous undertaking.
He has received death threats
because of his stand against the
camorra – the local mobsters – and
is now under police escort.
More than two decades after the
success of Io speriamo che me la cavo,
a bestseller with one million copies
sold, Marcello d’Orta has collected
the school essays of kids (sincere,
poetic, shocking) on the city of
Naples and the camorra.
The result is more thought
-provoking than so many political
46
and sociological analyses, and a
whole lot more fun.
“It’s easy to get into the camorra, but
hard to get out.”
“Between Nazis and camorristi, I
prefer camorristi: At least they’re
homeboys from Naples.”
“As soon as you get to my town, you
know you’re in the wrong place.”
marcello d’orta (born in Naples
in 1953) was a teacher in one of
the poorest sections of Naples,
known as the “casbah of Naples”.
He is the author of Io speriamo
che me la cavo, an extraordinary
bestsellers with 1.000.000 copies
sold, widely translated abroad.
Rights sold in Germany to
Diogenes.
NON FICTION
216 pages October 2012
Nicola Gratteri, Antonio Nicaso
Dire e non dire
To Say without Saying
The ten commandments of the ‘ndrangheta in the words of its affiliates
In a hearing of the super trial
in Palermo, Tommaso Buscetta
maintained that he was not quite
sure of the existence of a Calabrese
mafia. In the 70s and 80s the
‘ndrangheta was making the news
only because of the kidnappings.
Today it represents a truly global
threat: it controls the vast majority
of cocaine in Europe and earns
one and a half times the GDP of
Calabria, 21.8 million euros per
inhabitant, 44 billion total.
Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso
tell the ten commandments of the
‘ndrangheta through the words,
thoughts, and reflections of those
who embraced it, defend it, but also
those who betrayed it. Their sources
come from wire taps, testimonies
from the trials, and pizzini [notes
from the bosses]. They record the
men of the ‘ndrangheta talking
about everything: family, rules,
power, life and death, as well as
their relationship with politics
and the state, which seem to be
incapable of functioning without
the votes and the money provided
by this organization, by now one
of the most powerful syndicates
of international crime. “We can
no longer look the other way, nor
think that the fight against the mafia
is something that concerns only law
enforcement and magistrates,” the
future of honest people depends
first and foremost on the civil duty
of reporting crimes and on the
social obligation of knowledge.
nicola gratteri is one of the most
active magistrates in the fight
against the ‘ndrangheta. Together
with Antonio nicaso, a historian
of criminal organizations, he
published, with Mondadori, Fratelli
di sangue (2009) , La malapianta,
(2010) La mafia fa schifo. (2011).
Among his foreign publishers
Debate in Spain, Lebowski in the
Netherlands and Kalligram in
Slovak Republic.
47
memoir
200 pages February 2012
Lina Wertmüller
Tutto a posto e niente in ordine
Everything’s in place and nothing’s in order
The autobiography of the Lady of Italian cinema, passionate and funny like one of her films
“During my birth, a fat fly was
buzzing around the room. My
father, Federico Wertmüller, in
spite of being a laic spirit, far
removed from parapsychology,
thought a dead man’s soul had
materialized in that insect and that
it was his father-in-law, the cavalier
Arcangelo Santamaria Maurizio,
waiting to transmigrate into the
Arcangelina, as soon as she would
be placed in her cradle, with a finger
in her mouth and ruffled tuft of hair
on her head.”
This is the beginning of the
extraordinary autobiographical
tale by Arcangelina Wertmüller,
the most famous female Italian
director.
Restless and insistent, Lina
48
discovers at a young age her passion
for theater and enrolls in the
academy of Pietro Sharoff.
In 1963 she made her directorial
debut with the movie The Basilisks,
which would be followed by her
great successes of the 70s and 80s,
born from the happy collaboration
with actors like Giancarlo Giannini,
Mariangela Melato and Monica
Vitti: The Seduction of Mimì, Love and
Anarchy and Seven Beauties which
was nominated for three Oscars.
She has also directed for television
and the opera. She is loved by her
actors (from Marcello Mastroianni
to Valerio Valeri, Milena Vukotic,
Ugo Tognazzi etc.) and by her
audience. She likes to call herself
“a very lucky woman.”
Lina Wertmüller lives in Rome, but
descends from a noble Swiss family
(her complete name is Arcangela
Felice Assunta Wertmüller von
Elgg Spanol von Braueich). She
was the first female director to be
nominated for an Oscar (1977) and
she has won the most prestigious
international prizes for cinema.
non FICTION
228 pages November 2012
Francesco Rosi - Giuseppe Tornatore
Mi chiamano professore ma faccio
il cinematografo
They Call Me Professor but I’m a Film-Maker
Conversation with the film-maker Giuseppe Tornatore
Francesco Rosi is without doubt one
of the greatest figures in twentiethcentury Italian cinema and culture.
Born in Naples in the early 1920s,
he worked in the theatre and radio
during the war, before becoming,
in the 1960s, one of the most
important and widely admired of
all Italian filmmakers.
His work was marked by
political commitment and a bold
determination to denounce the
more unpalatable sides of Italian
life, as in his celebrated film Le mani
sulla città. His career intertwined
with those of many other major
figures in Italian culture, from
Raffaele La Capria to Gian Maria
Volontè, and from Luchino Visconti
to Sophia Loren.
Giuseppe Tornatore, one of the
leaders of the new generation
of film directors, has had many
conversations with ‘maestro’ Rosi,
establishing a profound intellectual
and human affinity with him. In
this book he gathers the fruits of
these conversations, telling Rosi’s
story and at the same time taking
the reader on a journey through
the most important phases in
the recent history of Italy and its
cinema.
Giuseppe Tornatore, born in
Bagheria, is one of the most
celebrated living Italian directors.
His films include Nuovo Cinema
Paradiso (Oscar for Best Foreign
Film 1988) and Baaria.
49
non FICTION
204 pages October 2012
Aldo Cazzullo
L’Italia s’è ridesta
Italy wakes up
A journey in an Italy that resists and rises again
“Today Italy is a Nation in a bad
mood. Scared. Suspended between
a past that does not come back and
a future that does not arrive.” All of
this does not happen by chance, it’s
our responsibility. “We are sitting
on a treasure chest, and we refuse
to open it. We look at the finger
of our discontent, and we forget
the moon of our future.” We are a
precious Nation, admired, envied,
with hidden virtues. We have to put
them on display. We must find again
the pride that led a Nation destroyed
by bombs and divided by civil war
to become one of the greatest
economic powerhouses of the world
in the span of a generation.
The gaze of the journalist and the
sensibility of the writer investigate
50
the familiar and respectable face,
what is known and what should
remain unknown of an Italy that
is rarely seen on the front page of
newspapers.
Cazzullo’s pen draws a picture of a
Nation that is radically different
from the stereotypes, and that,
plagued by the economic crisis, is
redefining its own identity.
“There is an Italy that resists and
rises again. It’s only a matter of
discovering it and telling its tale.”
Aldo Cazzullo, a journalist and
a writer, is a columnist for the
“Corriere della Sera”. He is the
author of numerous monographs,
among which: I ragazzi di Via Po
1997), I grandi vecchi (2006), L’Italia
de noantri (2009), Viva l’Italia!
(2010, a bestseller with 100,000
copies). In 2011 he published his
first novel La mia anima è ovunque
tu sia.
non FICTION
200 pages February 2012
Bruno Vespa
Il palazzo e la piazza
The Palace and the Crowd
The new historical-political book from the most famous television journalist
The latest thought-provoking
essay by one of the greatest Italian
reporters who, as ever, gives to his
numerous readers an important
contribution to better understand
Italy and its delicate political and
financial situation. Beginning
with the momentous crisis of
1929 and the Great Depression,
the book reconstructs the most
difficult moments in the economic
history of Italy and the world,
concluding with the dramatic
events of November 2011, with the
unexpected resignation of premier
Silvio Berlusconi, the surprising
nomination of Mario Monti as
Prime Minister, and the launching
of the so-called “professors’
administration.”
Through the words and testimonies
of the protagonists, updated till the
book’s publication, Vespa describes
the backstage of a dramatic year,
confused and yet decisive, for
Italy’s destiny and explores crisis
and consensus from Mussolini to
the new force in Italian politics,
the activist Beppe Grillo, a sort of
Italian Michael Moore.
Bruno Vespa was born in 1944 in
L’Aquila. Since 1996 his TV program
“Porta a porta” has been the mostwatched talk show on politics and
current events. With Mondadori,
he has published Telecamera con
vista, Il cambio, Il duello, La svolta, La
sfida, La corsa, Dieci anni che hanno
sconvolto l’Italia, Scontro finale, La
scossa, Rai, La grandeguerra, La
Grande Muraglia, Il Cavaliere e il
Professore, Storia d’Italia da Mussolini
a Berlusconi, Vincitori e vinti, L’Italia
spezzata, L’amore e il potere, Viaggio
in un’Italia diversa, Donne di cuori,
Il cuore e la spada e Questo amore.
51
non FICTION
264 pages March 2012
Federico Fubini
Noi siamo la rivoluzione
We Are the Revolution
Globalization meets tradition: the spark for trasformation
In the age of globalization,
understanding the trends and the
reasons for major upheavals may
prove a difficult task.
Yet the cultural, political and social
geography of a large portion of the
planet is rapidly transforming.
Federico Fubini takes us on a
journey with seven different
destinations – Thailand, Bhutan,
India, Saudi- Arabia, Ethiopia,
Tunisia and Catanzaro/ Italy, from
East to West – that become seven
chapters, in each of which he
recounts a 20th-century revolution,
and he analyses their common
elements. When the effects of
economic development encounter
traditional culture a political,
social or cultural revolution is
52
born, as seen in the Arab Spring,
in the women’s movement of Saudi
Arabia, in the youth uprising in
Tunisia.
A revolution that’s infectious in
every sense of the word, often
hinged to the internet’s social
networks.
Federico Fubini (born in
Florence in 1966) is on the staff of
Corriere della Sera, where his main
focus is international economics.
non FICTION
80 pages November 2012
Federico Rampini
Voi avete gli orologi, noi abbiamo il tempo
You Have the Clocks, We Have the Time
The “gray panthers”’ victory. Why middle-aged men are not a burden anymore, but a resource
Thanks to them, Italy ranked
seventh as the most industrialized
country in the world. We owe
them the economic miracle, the
consumption boost and the great
achievements when it comes to
civil rights. Those once called baby
boomers, are now on the fringes
of society. There seems to be no
more space for them: they are only
kept into consideration – in public
debates – when arguing about
retirements.
And yet, the so-called “gray
panthers”, as defined by Rampini,
could still be very useful to our
society. The average life expectancy
has reached ninety years old, the
baby boomers have got ahead
of them a “second adulthood”.
Which must be spent working,
giving them the chance to pass on
a fund of experience that no hard
disk could ever hold. The people
of Afghanistan have a saying: “You
have the clocks, we have the time”:
a proverb against the Western craze/
hectic mentality. The middle-aged
have made this idea their own: a few
gray hair have taught them to reduce
their pace and put this philosophy
into practice
Rampini’s book is a generation
manifesto, to prove that memories
and reminiscences are not the only
important things, but that there is
also a future to be written, indeed
to be typed, perhaps on an iPad’s
keyboard.
Federico Rampini, after years in
Beijing, is currently the New York
correspondent for “la Repubblica”
and has taught in the universities of
Berkeley and Shanghai.
This is his eight book published by
Mondadori.
His foreign publishers include
Laffont, Presença and Dokoran.
53
religious Books
300 pages October 2012
Vittorio Messori
Bernadette non ci ha ingannati
Bernadette has not deceived us
A historical investigation into the events at Lourdes
The burden of the world’s greatest
Marian sanctuary rests on the feeble
shoulders of a poor, sickly, illiterate
girl of fourteen. She was the only
one to ever see ‘the beautiful lady’;
the only witness to the eighteen
apparitions inside a cave near
Massabielle over a century ago.
150 years after that first apparition
on February 11, 1858, the number
of visitors to the site of Lourdes
continues to rise, reaching up to 6
million people each year.
Bernadette has not deceived us
is unique among the author’s
other bestselling titles, the result
of a 30 - year - long study and
maintains the characteristic
balance between respect for
people’s faith and providing honest
54
and diligent historical research.
The book contains no hyperbole
nor trivialization, but rather an
impressive body of data carefully
collected over thirthy years with the
aim of answering one sole question:
was Bernadette telling the truth?
Were Bernadette’s visions real? Was
Bernadette credible?
Vittorio Messori (Sassuolo,
1914) is the author of numerous
books which have been translated
worldwide, such as: Ipotesi su Gesù
(with over one million copies sold
in Italy); Rapporto sulla fede, an
interview with a former prefect of
the Holy Office, the cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger and - most important
of all - the first conversation in
history to be granted by Pope
John Paul II, Varcare la soglia
della Speranza (1994), one of the
greatest bestsellers ever published
worldwide. He is a journalist, who
collaborates with “Corriere della
Sera”.
religious Books
300 pages September 2012
Camillo Ruini - Andrea Galli
Intervista su Dio
Interview About God
The words of the faith, the path of reason
How can we be sure that God
exists? And if he does, how can we
be certain that he cares about us?
How far can reason take us, and why
should we believe in the god of Jesus
Christ?
Belief in God’s existence can
often come under attack amidst
the secularization and religious
criticism in our society, but in this
book, Cardinal Ruini traces God’s
footsteps through history, science
and culture, presenting a variety
of paths one can take to approach
religious faith.
Former President of the Italian
Episcopal Conference and a
journalist of the leading Catholic
newspaper “Avvenire” engage in a
dialogue on a topic crucial to today’s
society.
Interview about God aims to help
believers identify the reasons for
their faith while also providing
support for those who would like to
become believers.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini served as
President of the Italian Episcopal
Conference and is currently the
head of the Italian Church Cultural
Affairs Commission as well as the
International Commission for
Medjugorje. He is also the author
of numerous books.
Andrea Galli is a journalist for the
daily newspaper “L’Avvenire”.
55
religious Books
200 pages November 2012
Joseph Ratzinger
Pensieri di fede per una vita felice
Thoughts on Faith for Leading a Happy Life
A poignant meditation on faith by the man now Pope Benedict XVI
A collection of Pope Benedict XVI’s
thoughts on faith and christian life
taken not from official statements
nor encyclicals, but rather from the
Holy Father’s private discussions.
The topics discussed are arranged
in alphabetical order ranging from
charity work, consumerism and the
environment, to globalization and
loneliness, with particular attention
given to the subjects that are at the
core of Benedict XVI’s teachings.
By the same author Mondadori
published in February Witnesses
of the Christian Message, a book on
masters of the Christian faith and
witnesses to its modernity.
Men ‘on a journey’: such are the
figures that Benedict XVI presents
56
in this book , which comprises thirty
vivid portraits which will ‘educate
God’s people by introducing them
to the work of writers who have
provided exemplary illustrations
of the living faith of the Church’:
Ambrose, Cyprian, Ephraim Syrus,
John Chrysostom, Jerome, William
of Saint-Thierry, Irenaeus of Lyon,
Tertullian and many others. Anyone
who has heard their teachings
cannot fail to appreciate their
present-day relevance.
Joseph Ratzinger (born in
Germany in 1927) has been head
of the Roman Catholic Church
since April 2005 under the
name Benedict XVI. A prolific
author, theologian and university
professor, Ratzinger served as an
“expert” at the Second Vatican
Council, and was tapped in
1977 by Pope Paul VI to lead the
German Archdiocese of Muenich
and Freising. In 1981, Pope John
Paul II called him to Rome to head
the Vatican’s Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, where he
served until his papal election.
religious Books
200 pages September 2012
Carlo Maria Martini
Colti da stupore
Standing in awe
Christ’s universal message, told by cardinal Martini
In a recent article published before
his death last september, Carlo
Maria Martini states that “the
Church’s first priority is not that of
supporting the moral behavior of
human beings. Above all, it must
proclaim the Gospel, which says
that God accepts all men, with no
exceptions.
It must proclaim the Gospel of
mercy ignoring those who exploit
it for their own benefit. It provides
that extra something required to
turn an honest man into a man
who models himself after Christ’s
poverty.”
The Gospels, centered on the figure
of Christ, are the theme and the
inspiration for a series of sermons
cardinal Martini has delivered
Carlo Maria Martini, (recently
passed away), a Jesuit, an
internationally recognized Bible
scholar, was the archbishop of
Milan. At the end of his Episcopal
service he retired to Jerusalem,
where he resumed his studies. A
respected exegetical and theological
scholar, he has published more
than 40 books, all widely translated
abroad.
over the last few years. This brief
and enlightening book, organized
according to the liturgical calendar,
collects these speeches that
constitute a narration of Christ’s life,
offering a philosophical message
rather than a theological one,
focused on the most basic values
and the “most human” behaviors.
Carlo Maria Martini’s reflections on
Christ’s story constitute a universal
example, for believers and laic
alike, a precious guide to learning
how to lead “our life,” without giving
into conformism.
57
religious Books
144 pages October 2012
Gianfranco Ravasi
Guida ai naviganti
Advice to the Seafarers
The reasons for faith
At the beginning of the “Year of the
Faith”, Gianfranco Ravasi, with this
very original contribution, sets the
course for a symbolic navigation
between the sacred and the profane,
church and state. This journey, filled
with reflections and impressions
taken from philosophical thought,
literature, and art – spanning from
Kafka to Borges, from Augustine
to Kierkegaard, from Ionesco
to Cioran – but also from the
world of scientific research, is an
“itinerarium mentis in Deum”
that starts from the City of man, “a
metropolis without cathedrals” and
explores the realm of the Spirit.
These limpid and engaging pages
traverse not only the biblical field,
which Ravasi handles with his usual
58
unparalleled mastery, but also the
field of laic culture, establishing
an inspiring dialogue. This is a
fast-paced essay of great depth,
surprisingly new for its structure
and tone, and for his intense
personal participation.
Gianfranco Ravasi (born near
Milan in 1942), archbishop of
the Roman Catholic Church, is
currently the president of the
Pontifical Council for culture as
well as the Pontifical Committees
for Ecclesiastical art and sacred
Archeology. A biblical scholar
and an Hebraist, he has written a
long list of religious essays, widely
translated abroad.
Among his foreign publishers:
Herder, Fleurus, Salwator, Verbo
Divino, Dom Quixote, St. Andrew
Biblical Theological Institute.
memoir
216 pages September 2012
Salvatore Accardo
Il miracolo della musica
The miracle of music
The surprising autobiography by the undisputed heir of Niccolò Paganini
Salvatore Accardo is one of the most
famous violinists in the world, in
addition to being a conductor. A
true musical talent (although he
doesn’t consider himself as such),
he picked up a violin for the first time
in 1944, at three years of age. His
father, a miniaturist from Torre del
Greco, gave him a child-size one as
a present and instinctually he played
Lili Marleen. In 1952, at age eleven, he
is accepted to the San Pietro a Majella
conservatory in Naples, where he
graduates by playing all twenty-four
of Paganini’s Capricci.
Thus began his fulminating career,
which would take him around the
world and give him the opportunity
to meet with the greatest musicians
of each country.
His repertoire is truly vast, although
Paganini has marked – and, in a
certain way, even conditioned – his
entire professional life.
Accardo tells his own story for the
first time in these pages, revealing
previously unknown facts, like
that when he was young he was a
very promising soccer goalkeeper
and that he played unbeknownst
to his father, who wanted him to
be a violinist. He uncovers secret
passions, such as one for the movies
of another exceptional Neapolitan,
Totò, as well as less secret ones, such
as his love for Ines and Irene, his two
twin daughters, age three and a half.
Salvatore Accardo, born in Turin
only by chance from a Neapolitan
family, grew up in Naples. He has
won the most prestigious prizes and
competitions on both the national
and international level. He has
worked with the major orchestras
of the world and in 1992 he founded
the “Accardo quartet” and in 1996
the “Orchestra da camera italiana”.
59
non FICTION
195 pages September 2012
Irene Bernardini
Bambini e basta
Children are Just Children
Because we must not forget we are the adults
Looking around, we can see that
our society is filled with childish
adults and adult children; there
are adults that reject their roles
and children who must take up the
reigns. It seems as though children
are losing their right to a childhood;
there are dancers, soccer players,
actors, painters, singers, models—
but where are the children who
are just children? The innocent
daydreamers who ask for our love
and attention, who rely on us to
protect them from the stresses in
life—where have they gone?
Irene Bernardini explains how badly
we need to reestablish the roles
of parents and children through
stories of everyday families. Our
children need strong parents as
60
much as they need to be allowed a
proper childhood full of play and
imagination.
This is a book for all those girls
and boys who need us to behave as
adults and all us men and women
who need our children to be just
children.
Irene Bernardini is a clinical
psychologist. She has been the
coordinator of the GeA Center
(Still Parents Center) in Milan since
1989. She has also written a column
for “Vanity Fair” since 2004 and has
published Finché vita non ci separi
(1995), Una famiglia come un’altra
(1997) and Elogio di una donna
normale (2010).
non FICTION
159 pages February 2012
Lella Ravasi Bellocchio
L’amore è un’ombra
Love is a Shadow
The hidden side of maternity
Mums are not always good. Mums
are not always right.
How many mothers are filled with
envy of the beauty and youth of their
daughters? How many of them see
their children only as a reflection of
their narcissistic ego?
How many mothers, closed in their
sufferance, are unable to take care
of their children properly?
Every mother has a shadow inside
her: Lella Ravasi Bellocchio explores
the hidden side of maternity in a
very direct way in this harsh and
thought-provoking essay, telling
significant stories of “terrible”
mothers. Not only the extreme
cases (such as Dolores, who kills
her daughter as she is convinced
the newborn is ugly), but also
stories of daily life, of domineering
mothers, or of mothers unable to
love their children because totally
selfconcentrated, depressed or
aggressive.
This is a book that can help to find
the correct way to approach your
child: never hyper-protective, or
aggressive or all-absorbing.
Lella Ravasi Bellocchio is a Jungian
psychoanalyst and a member of
the International Association
for Analytical Psychology. She is
the author of many essays on the
feminine world.
61
non FICTION
180 pages April 2012
Francesca Caferri
Il Paradiso ai piedi delle donne
Paradise under the feet of women
Women and the future of the Islamic world
This book tells the story of
several women in six different
Islamic nations (Morocco, Egypt,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen,
Saudi Arabia) that the author has
been visiting as a journalist for the
past decade: she has tracked down
their work and progress over the
years. Some of them, like Tawakkol
Karman, head of Women Journalists
Without Chains and the first Arab
woman winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize 2011, were less well known
outside their communities when
we started our conversations and
became acquainted. By profiling
ordinary women, as well as human
rights activists, politicians,
journalists and bloggers, this
book aims to underline the role of
62
women in the development of the
Muslim world and seeks to dispel
some of the stereotypical views
about women in Islamic societies.
It portrays a situation that is very
different country by country and
reveals many contradictions in a
mostly Western media narrative
which tends to profile the condition
of Muslim women as … all the same.
The body of it has tended to focus
on issues of human rights, inter
cultural dialogue and the role of civil
society in advancing human dignity.
Francesca Caferri is an awardwinning foreign correspondent of
the daily “la Repubblica”. She has
reported in recent years from Iraq,
Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon,
Pakistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
non FICTION
125 pages September 2012
Luisella Costamagna
Noi che costruiamo gli uomini
We Who Make Men
Stories of women who believe in themselves
In June 2011, a Nielson survey that
was conducted across 21 countries
revealed that despite the great
feminist movements of the sixties
and seventies, Italian women
continue to identify themselves
as homemakers rather than as
workers and businesswomen.
They are convinced there are no
opportunities for them outside the
home, when in fact, they simply lack
self-esteem. Can this mentality,
that negatively influences their
opportunities and makes women
vulnerable to abuse, be corrected?
Luisella Costamagna is convinced
that it can and has collected the
stories of ten women who have
succeeded in life despite the many
challenges —including the nagging
voice saying “I-won’t-make-it”.
Noi che costruiamo gli uomini is a call
to women to take on their dreams; a
voice of encouragement in a storm
of doubt telling women to become
their own masters and do the things
they never thought they could
accomplish.
Luisella Costamagna is a journalist,
writer and anchorwoman who
has worked on some of the most
influential political programming
in Europe. She has received
numerous awards and writes the
columns in “Diva” e “Donna” and
“Il Salvagente”.
63
memoir
216 pages October 2012
Ramin Bahrami
Come Bach mi ha salvato la vita
How bach saved my life
The extraordinary story of one of the greatest pianists of our times
Born in Teheran, Iran in 1976,
Ramin Bahrami has interpreted
Bach’s music with an originality
and sensibility that excited even the
harshest critics, who have compared
him to the legendary Glenn Gould.
Ramin was only seven years old
when his father Parviz, a passionate
violinist and a Scià engineer for
many years, was incarcerated by
the Khomenist regime on suspicion
of working for the West. “Befriend
Bach, he’ll never abandon you” his
father told him before leaving. He
would die in an Ayatollah prison five
years later in 1991. He was a beloved
figure, who instilled a love for music
and an unceasing desire to change
the world in his young and talented
son. Forced to emigrate to Europe
64
at eleven following the aftermath of
the Iranian revolution, Ramin takes
refuge in Italy and graduates at the
top of his class in piano from the
Verdi Conservatory in Milan. This
is when he began his interpretative
research of Bach’s production,
which would earn him world
fame and which Ramin Bahrami
approaches with the respect and
cosmopolitan sensibility acquired
through his training. Bach’s music,
he writes in this book, and its
universal message of freedom,
harmony, and beauty “resemble
the world we still imagine to be
possible.”
Ramin Bahrami (Teheran, 1976),
Iranian pianist, is considered one
of the greatest interpreters of Bach
of our time.
memoir
192 pages January 2012,
Massimiliano Verga
Zigulì
A disquieting memoir by the father of a disabled child
Massimiliano Verga is the father of
7-year-old Moreno, who was born
healthy but within days developed
conditions that led to severe
disabilities. “Here I have gathered
together the odors, the tastes, the
images of seven years of living with
my son Moreno, our second of
three. Odors – mostly unpleasant.
Tastes – that made me puke. Images
– that my eyes would never wish to
have seen. I’ve even thought that it
is he that wields the hand of fortune
– because he cannot see, because
his brain is the size of a marble.
But to tastes you get accustomed.
You don’t even notice the odors any
more. Because as I always say, from
zero to ten, my anger level continues
to be eleven.
This book is one of many pictures
I’ve taken in recent years. I feel
like a photographer who still uses a
camera with film. To see the results
of a shot, I have to wait for someone
to develop the film and print it for
me.”
An intense, touching and gripping
account.
Massimiliano Verga is 42 years
old. He teaches sociology of law
at the Milano-Bicocca University.
This is his first book, with 30.000
copies already sold.
65
cook books
240 pages September 2012
Sonia Peronaci
divertiti cucinando
Fun with Cooking
A new adventure with the creator of the website Giallo Zafferano
Sonia Peronaci is the creator of
GialloZafferano.it, Italy’s most
beloved cooking website, where
she features recipes that are fast,
flavorful and original.
The kitchen has always been at the
center of Sonia’s life and in her
book, Fun with cooking, she bans
boredom from the kitchen by taking
everyday meals and making them
extraordinary.
It doesn’t take much to create a
culinary masterpiece at home and
in her much-awaited second book,
Sonia teaches you to cook meals that
are healthy, delicious, and above all,
fun to make.
Whether you’re looking to make
a simple dinner or fix an elegant
feast for friends—or even just
66
reuse leftovers without your kids
knowing—the 100 new recipes in
Fun with cooking will have just what
you need.
Try it, and if you want to know
more about it just click on www.
giallozafferano.it
Sonia Peronaci is the most beloved
online chef since, a few years ago,
she started delighting her fans
by creating the website www.
giallozafferano.com.
This is her second book : in 2011 she
published with Mondadori Le mie
migliori ricette.
cook books
204 pages November 2012
Antonella Clerici
con Alessandra Spisni and Sergio Barzetti
La prova del cuoco
The Chef’s Proof
The new cookbook from the golden team of Italian gastronomy
If somebody has taught cooking
to Italians over the last few years,
without a doubt that somebody is
Antonella Clerici. On one hand
through her daily TV program
“La prova del cuoco”, she suggests
recipes and tricks to million of
housewives. On the other hand with
her successful books she brought
her philosophy of simple cooking
into Italian homes.
Tradition, modernity and
simplicity: these are the three
main ingredients in her latest new
book where the popular Antonella
shares her love for cooking Italianstyle with two exceptional chefs:
Alessandra Spisni, a chef from
Bologna, and Sergio Barzetti, an
expert of mise-en-place . Both of
them are by her side in her popular
TV program and are the biggest
inspiration for a great variety of
tasteful dishes between tradition
and modernity.
Don’t miss a single bite!
Antonella Clerici is a professional
journalist and a TV host, successfully
leading the cheerful company of “La
prova del cuoco”. She is the author
of the highly successful three
volumes Oggi cucini tu, Le ricette d’oro
della “Prova del cuoco” and Scuola
di cucina.
Alessandra Spisni is the founder
of the cooking school “La vecchia
scuola bolognese”, being the best
chef of the Bologna tradition. She
is the author of the 2011 bestseller
La maestra di cucina.
Sergio Barzetti after years of
training in hotels and restaurants,
is now chef and is a contributor to
the magazine “La cucina Italiana”
67
non FICTION
200 pages November 2012
Luciana Litizzetto
New Book
The new poisonous and mercilessly funny book by the Italian “queen of comedy”
“I always talk about love in the
nether regions. I can’t fly any
higher… I fly low like turkeys. It’s
the both the good and the bad thing
about me.”
There must be a reason why Luciana
Littizzetto is the most read comedian
in Italy. Maybe because no one else
is capable of pointing out our great
faults and little shortcomings, for, in
her monologues, both the king and
his subjects are equally naked.
“Men undressing in front of women
has always been one of nature’s great
spectacles, it’s like seeing a cat fall
off the toilet seat. It’s funny and
endearing at the same time. The
shirt part is not too bad. Although
it looks like their swimming in
polenta, they still manage to emerge
68
from it without too much infamy.
And without praise, either.
When they get to the nether regions,
that’s when they’re really in trouble.
There’s some who, as soon as they
see a taste of slurpee coming their
way, they drop their pants and
drawers down to their ankles. Bam.
They unpeel themselves like
bananas. It’s too bad that a cocktail
of underwear jeans shoes and socks
now lies at their feet, fused together,
something they’ll never be able to
escape. A sort of pedestal. They start
hopping like they’re in a potato sack
race. Like Subbuteo figurines. They
goes from super hot to super dumb
in a nanosecond.”
Luciana Litizzetto (Turin, 1964),
ex-professor of music education and
literature, is a cult figure of Italian
comedy. She has worked, with a
great deal of success, in radio, film,
and television.
With Mondadori, she has published
the humour books : Sola come un
gambo di sedano, La principessa sul
pisello, Col cavolo, Rivergination, La
jolanda furiosa, I dolori del giovane
Walter , massive bestsellers in Italy.
Among her foreign publishers:
Bertrand Brasil, Presença, Ripol,
Eichborn, Alma Littera.
Foreign Rights Manager
Emanuela Canali
ARNOLDO MONDADORI EDITORE
via Mondadori,1
20090 Segrate-Milano
[email protected]
tel. +39.02.7542.3167
fax +39.02.7542.3047
Foreign Rights Assistant
Nadia Colombo
ARNOLDO MONDADORI EDITORE
via Mondadori,1
20090 Segrate-Milano
[email protected]
tel. +39.02.7542.2384
fax +39.02.7542.3047
www.librimondadori.it