Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the author, Mario Desiati: mario.desiati@fandango.it
Ternitti
by Mario Desiati
Mondadori, 2011
Works
in Search of Publication
Like the Six Characters in Search of an Author in the
play by Luigi Pirandello
(Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore), the following are a few of the works which have interested me in recent
times and are in
Search of an English-language Publisher.
Ternitti
| Mario Desiati’s novel Ternitti (Mondadori, 2011) was a finalist for the Premio Strega 2011, one of Italy’s most prestigious literary awards. The story is an account of Switzerland’s Eternit factory, and the health damages incurred by the Italian workers and their families who went there to work and experienced occupational exposure to asbestos over a period of time. More than that it is the story of Mimì Orlando, the daughter of one of the workers, through whose eyes the narrative unfolds. The year is 1975 when the girl Mimì is forced to leave her home in Puglia, with its salt sea air, and move to Switzerland, where her father takes up work in the large factory that produces “lu Ternitti”, Eternit or asbestos. Eternit holds the promise of wealth for thousands of unsuspecting migrants unaware that exposure to it will eventually kill them. In Switzerland, a secret passion blooms between fifteen year old Mimì and eighteen year old Ippazio, a solitary young man from her village who also works in the ternitti factory. Skip ahead to 1990: Mimì is back in Puglia. Alone. With a determination and pride that make her an exceptional woman, courageous and fierce. She has a teenage daughter, Arianna, who is just a little younger than her. But there are no men with them, no father for Arianna. Mimì lives life with intense innocence, day by day reclaiming the youth that she was never able to experience, despite the anxieties and fears which make her seek refuge under the bed to listen to her ancestors. “Ternitti” in dialect also means “roof”, and it is on a roof, finally in contact with the sky, that Mimì will be able to redeem a village, a land and perhaps even a love. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the author, Mario Desiati: mario.desiati@fandango.it Ternitti by Mario Desiati Mondadori, 2011 |
|
The
Equilibrium of Sharks
|
The Equilibrium of
Sharks by Caterina Bonvicini |
Caterina Bonvicini’s The Equilibrium of Sharks (L’equilibrio degli squali, Milan: Garzanti, 2008) is an award-winning novel which has been published in translation in France – where it was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix Littéraire de L’Héroïne “Madame Figaro” (as best foreign book) – with editions in Germany and Holland soon to follow. Sofia’s father’s work takes him to faraway places. He has a fascination for sharks, which he studies and films underwater at close range, diving without a cage with courageous daring. He keeps in touch with Sofia through e-mail, writing about his thrilling encounters and sending her spectacular, transfixing videos. The men Sofia encounters – starting with her husband Nicola – are as fascinating as sharks, and with their depressive tendencies, just as dangerous. When things with Nicola fall apart, Sofia starts over again, first with Arturo, later with Marcello, always hoping to find some equilibrium in her life, some emotional stability. The suggestive metaphor of the title allows Bonvicini to portray the maturation of a young woman struggling against solitude and depression as she navigates the shark-infested waters of life. While her father insists that the shark is by no means a demon, that it is crucial to the equilibrium of the sea and that it must be protected, Sofia herself requires the equilibrium and protection her father represents. Written with an ironic self-awareness, a light touch and a mature, convincing style, L’equilibrio degli squali is a novel about solitude and love, friendship and compassion. It is also a hymn to the beauty of Torino. “A rare intensity and beauty is displayed in the quality of her writing and thought.” --Ermanno Olmi “An extraordinary novel… a revelation.” --Jérôme Garcin, Le Nouvel Observateur Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to literary agent Piergiorgio Nicolazzini: piergiorgio.nicolazzini@pnla.it Sample translation available upon request. |
The Summer We Fell From Grace
| Rosella Postorino’s novel The Summer We Fell From Grace (L’estate che perdemmo dio, Einaudi Editore, 2009) tells the story of a family – a father, mother and two young daughters – forced to emigrate to the north from their town in southern Italy following a dramatic event which is only fully revealed later on. Told through multiple narrative voices, the story moves back and forth in time with episodes from the family’s life before the “escape” (with clues as to why they fled) and incidents from their new life in a strange city where they are treated as foreigners, where everything is unfamiliar, and where the parents are haunted by the precariousness of their situation, and drained by being on the alert, as if a new tragedy might explode at any moment. The strength of the novel rests on a succession of “intimist” moments whose effect is cumulative rather than individual. The tone is at times dramatic, and there is a frequent sense of wonderment in seeing events through the wise-child-eyes of the older daughter. Caterina’s voice and the choral voices of her southern
Italian family are the real charm of this book, a palpable presence, like the judicious scattering of dialect throughout. Only at the end do we learn the relationship between the initial tragedy, the mafia-related murder of a beloved family member, and the latest misfortune that has struck the family. Among the many critical reviews praising the novel are these words by Silvia Ballestra, writing in the Corriere della Sera: “The sense of betrayal and uprooting, combined with a thirst for freedom that is accompanied by a strong sense of guilt, is intense... The tragedy goes on, it is the curse of our South and it is monstrous, perhaps even more so when it is confronted indirectly, through the delicate gaze of a child.” (“Il senso di tradimento e sradicamento, unito a una sete di libertà vissuta con non pochi sensi di colpa, è fortissimo… Il dramma rimane, è la maledizione del nostro Sud ed è tremenda, forse peggiore anche quando affrontata di sguincio, con la delicatezza dello sguardo di bambine.”) Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to literary agent Vicki Satlow: vickisatlow@tin.it Sample translation available upon request. |
The Summer We Fell From
Grace |
When Things Happen
|
When Things
Happen by |
Angelo Cannavacciuolo’s novel, When Things Happen (Le cose accadono) is an award-winning novel which delves into the moral and material degradation of the city of Naples, as seen through the eyes of Michele, a speech therapist who works with abandoned children, and whose distant past returns to settle accounts. On one level it is the story of a childhood denied, raped and stolen at an age when the soul’s wounds are in danger of bleeding forever. It is also a novel that tests the depth of a man and his vision against the unexpected, the disruptive, as he is drawn into another world and things begin to happen. The novel is “a punch in the stomach” as it contrasts the deprivation and squalor of le Vele, the district where Michele Campo grew up, with the more upscale, bourgeoise area of the city, il Vomero, where he now lives and to which he aspires. Through a rich range of characters, the novel deftly portrays a Neapolitan upper class society intent on cultivating a passion for materialism and indifference. Yet though its themes include societal ills, social injustices and abandoned children, and though it exposes the sense of frailty and powerlessness in all of us when things happen apart from our will and in spite of us, the title is not meant to be fatalistic or hopeless. On the contrary, there is some hope in that when things happen, we can learn to take control of what happens, to own our destiny. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the author: a.cannavacciuolo@gmail.com or his representative Barbara Burdick: barbaraburdick@comcast.net Sample translation available upon request. |
The New Fire
|
The New Fire, a novel by Enzo Fontana, recounts the end of the Aztec world which began in the Year of One Reed when the "floating temples" of Cortés, the conquistador or false, deceitful “god”, appeared on the sea. The arrival of the Spaniards and their inexorable advance towards the heart of the empire are imagined through the eyes of the conquered, or more specifically, through the vacillating feelings of Montezuma II, the last
emperor of the mexica. Amazed and astonished, doubtful and inexplicably acquiescent, the Lord of the mexica emerges as a solitary, tragic figure sequestered in a world of his own. Isolated in his palace in the city on a lagoon, Mexico-Tenoctitlan, so beautiful as to evoke a Venice of the Indies, Montezuma cannot
determine whether Cortés is the returning god Quetzacoatl or an invader. |
The New Fire, a novel by Enzo Fontana. (Il fuoco nuovo. Casa Editrice Marietti, 2006). |
Absolution
Absolution, a novel by Antonio Monda. (Assoluzione. Milan: Mondadori, 2008). |
One critic wrote about the novel Absolution: “Antonio Monda … has written a novel full of surprises... Entitled Assoluzione (Absolution), it is the story of a young lawyer and his illustrious mentor, a luminary in the field of criminal law. A fervent supporter of civil rights, the older man personally experienced the breakdown of the justice system when he was unjustly accused of collusion with the camorra and made to serve a brief period of detention. It is the story of the relationship between the elderly mentor and his young apprentice, but above all it is the rendering of a fundamental concept of our law: the presumption of innocence.”
(Grasso Aldo, Corriere della Sera, April 8, 2008). Beyond this, Monda's novel is a page-turner, with strong human-interest appeal. The real protagonist of the book is the ambitious young attorney, Marigliano, an unsympathetic character at best, who pretends to know things he doesn't, is overly concerned with superficial appearances, and whose egotism and ambition lead him to distort and exploit his mentor's principles and lose his own moral compass in the bargain. Another critic rightfully (Natalia Aspesi, Repubblica, April 1, 2008) characterized the narrative as "when a lawyer renounces his soul".
Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to literary agent Edward Orloff at The Wylie Agency:
eorloff@wylieagency.com |
The Game of the Universe
|
Dacia Maraini & Fosco Maraini, The Game of the Universe: Imaginary Dialogues Between a Father and Daughter. |
The book The Game of the Universe (“Il gioco dell'universo. Dialoghi immaginari tra un padre e una figlia”, Mondadori, 2007) by Dacia Maraini e Fosco Maraini is a collage of alternating texts: Dacia’s commentary to Fosco’s notebook entries constitute an “imaginary dialogue” through which she reconstructs her father’s intellectual and existential course, a journey that took him to the far reaches of the east and brought him back to the west to share what he found there. Reading and reflecting on the notebooks of Fosco Maraini – pages covered with tiny characters and concise, telegraphic accounts – Dacia reconstructs the figure of her famous father while alternating her comments (sometimes indulgent, always clear-sighted) with his diary entries. Through this “dialogue” she creates a vivid portrait of this man of many interests - travel writer, poet, ethnologist, explorer and photographer - who brought his understanding of the east to the west, and who has been described as “an illuminated humanist who climbed mountains in both the physical and metaphorical sense.” By all accounts Fosco Maraini was an extraordinary man: handsome, eccentric, curious, avid for life, knowledge, experience. While the work of Dacia Maraini has for decades been part of the fabric of Italian culture, Fosco’s work is still awaiting the recognition that it deserves. The attentive portrayal rendered by Dacia constitutes a definitive contribution toward this end. The rights for “Il gioco dell'universo” are available and owned by the author. Sample translation available upon request. |
Frederick II and Saint Francis
|
Frederick II and Saint Francis by Carlo Fornari. (Federico II e San Francesco. Parma: Edizioni All'Insegna del Veltro, 2005). |
Arising from a series of talks given by the author at the Frederick II Foundation in
Jesi, Italy, and published in part in the journal Tabulae of the Centro Studi
Fredericiani, the volume Frederick II and Saint Francis by Carlo Fornari considers the lives of Frederick II and Saint Francis and poses the question: did the Swabian Emperor and the saint of Assisi lead parallel lives? Sample translation available upon request. |
Short Circuit
| In her recent collection of short stories entitled Short Circuit (Cortocircuito, Milan: Rizzoli, 2008), Elena Gianini Belotti address a significant issue of our time: immigration. The stories that make up the volume are an invitation to reflection and understanding amidst a mounting tide of xenophobia. In Italy (as elsewhere in the world), cities, countryside, factories and even offices are gradually changing. The children of immigrants now speak Italian as their mother tongue and are in all respects citizens of that country, despite the fact that this transformation is neither accepted nor acknowledged. And yet without these “foreigners” the nation would come to a dead stop, unable to stand on its own two feet. Coexistence between native and immigrant populations is problematic, the mingling of ethnicities, cultures and viewpoints can be challenging, and the ensuing transformation is often frightening. As a result, people live in a "blackout" caused by a cortocircuito, a kind of "short circuit" which prevents them from recognizing how much their own lives have become inextricably linked with those of the foreigners: that of Varvara, for example, the protagonist of "The Seagull", who despite her indomitable spirit finds herself hunted "like a fox run down by the hounds". Focusing on an unsettling element in contemporary life, the reality of the minority experience, Belotti's stories capture a situation that, like it or not, affects everyone. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the publisher, Rizzoli. Sample translation available upon request. |
Elena Gianini Belotti, Short Circuit, short stories. (Cortocircuito. Milan: Rizzoli, 2008). |
Angel of the Mud
| Leonardo Gori’s novel “Angel of the Mud” (“L'angelo del fango”, Milan, Rizzoli, 2005) was awarded the 2005 Premio Scerbanenco for detective fiction. It is set in Florence, in November, 1966:
against a backdrop of the catastrophic flooding of the Arno River that devastated and transfigured the city,
the body of a man is found in one of the subterranean rooms of the
inundated National Library. Though he appears to be a victim, like all the others, of the surge of mud and oily water that has buried the city, Colonel Bruno Arcieri of the Carabinieri comes to the conclusion that a crime has been committed. Indeed the crime is closely linked to a past that continues to project its
lurid shadows onto the present. What appears at first to be merely a dramatic discovery, turns out to be the first thread of a web as complex as it is intricate, in which old wrongs and immanent violence emerge from the sludge of time. The Colonel has come to Florence with a team of secret agents to set up and oversee the official visit of the President of the Italian Republic. As unresolved enigmas connected to the last gasps of the war resurface, a conspiracy to kill the President unfolds in a plot involving former Fascists, double agents and disloyal secret service men. And naturally there is a woman involved, Anna Gianfalco, a library clerk, who has her own secrets to hide and fears for her life. All threads converge in this fast-paced, compelling thriller that is meticulously constructed and displays Gori’s rare talent for fusing historical fact with original narrative. Still a child at the time of Florence’s devastating flood of 1966, Gori vividly recalls the angeli del fango, angels of the mud, the volunteers who came to his city in droves to lend a helping hand. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to literary agent Piergiorgio Nicolazzini: piergiorgio.nicolazzini@pnla.it Sample translation available upon request. |
Leonardo Gori, |
Among the Lost Souls
| Enzo Fontana’s novel “Among the Lost Souls” (“Tra la perduta gente”, Milan: Mondadori, 1996), set in Italy in 1321, is a fictional account of the final days of Dante Alighieri. The poet, having completed the Commedia, is living out the last months of his life in exile in Ravenna, dependent upon the generosity of his benefactor Guido Novello Da Polenta. Although the documented facts surrounding Dante’s life are few, the novel rests upon a foundation of solid historical research. The backdrop, a period in which the centuries-old animosity between Ravenna and Venice threatens to erupt anew, is vividly drawn, and Dante’s affection for his children Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia, who may soon be homeless yet again, is touchingly and plausibly depicted. The poet’s temperamental and physical traits are also consistent with what has been written about him and what he himself has revealed in his writings: in Fontana’s portrayal, Dante comes across as a man who in the final months of his life remains proud and even arrogant after years of bitter exile. His body may have been “bent” (“alquanto curvetto” in Boccaccio’s words), but his soul remained upright. Concerned with themes of universal connection – war and politics, parental love, human pride, social mores, family relationships, and friendship – the book was conceived and written at a time when Fontana found himself in his own personal “exile” from the world. During that time he read and re-read Dante’s Divine Comedy and completed his own spiritual pilgrimage out of the “dark wood” of his earlier life. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the publisher, Mondadori Sample translation available upon request. |
Enzo
Fontana, |
| See also: Prof. Peter Cocozzella’s 1997 article on Tra la perduta gente: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20417740.html |
|
Antonietta Pirandello
Marina Argenziano, Antonietta Pirandello née Portolano. Fiction. (Antonietta Pirandello nata Portolano: Dialogo mancato con Luigi. Rome: Editrice Irradiazioni, 2001). |
Marina Argenziano’s Antonietta Pirandello née Portolano: A Dialogue with Luigi That Never Took Place" (Antonietta Pirandello nata Portolano: Dialogo mancato con Luigi, Rome: Editrice Irradiazioni, 2001) is a fictional "dialogue" between the well-known Nobel Prize winning playwright Luigi Pirandello and the woman who became his wife. As Pirandello penned his works, his wife slipped slowly into madness. The "dialogue" traces this process, giving a voice to the woman who felt alienated and excluded, and expressing universal themes of male-female relationships and social mores. Antonietta Portolano was a fine young woman from Girgenti, Sicily, well-off and certainly "bbona pi muglieri" (a good marriage prospect) when Luigi Pirandello met her. When he married her in January, 1894, it was up to him to see to it that she would grow up to become a "real woman". But things did not go as planned. As Luigi went about creating his fictional characters, Antonietta felt uprooted and inadequate, and her psyche became flawed by cracks which crept deeper and deeper. The dialogue traces the tragic crescendo of this marriage and describes the impossible match with powerful tension. Marina Argenziano has created a voice for Antonietta, the woman who up till now has been viewed as a silent, disquieting presence alongside her celebrated husband. Argenziano is known for her essays and reviews of twentieth century authors, and for her adaptations for the theatre. Inquiries regarding rights may be addressed to the publisher, Editrice Irradiazioni. Sample translation available upon request. |
