LIT EDIZIONI
Foreign Rights List
Spring 2013
Irene Pepiciello, Rights Manager
[email protected]
[email protected]
Chiara Rea, Rights Assistant
[email protected]
Phone: +39 06 8844749
FICTION……………………………………………………………….p. 3
NON FICTION……………………………………………………….p. 14
2
FICTION - ELLIOT
Donatella Di Pietrantonio
MY MOTHER IS A RIVER
An amazing debut, marking the discovery of a new writer, with a unique style.
A poetical tale of a “love, soon to be wrong” between mother and daughter.
One of the most powerful debuts of the last few years. Amazing.
«la Repubblica»
Beautiful.
«Elle»
A clean, sharp and strong voice.
«Corriere della Sera»
Real to life and struggling… Read it!
«L’Unità»
Esperia, an old woman, is struggling with the first signs of a disease which is taking her memories away, along
with the very meaning of life. It’s time her daughter took care of her, and helped her telling her story, their story.
So the journey begins. Small and big events are recounted: Esperia’s birth, the story of her parents - a veteran of
the First World War who turned himself into a Communist and his wife, a peasant, sleek and elegant
notwithstanding the hardness of the country life. The narration starts in the Forties and ends in the present, and
it’s settled in Abruzzo, a harsh region but full of light, which emerges as a mythological and distant land.
Day by day, we meet the members of the family, the inhabitants of the small village where people still live without
electricity or running water, people who belong to their arid region so much that they suffer once they’re far from
home. A distant school or a job in the city are destinations of a journey in which the only possible salvation is going
back.
Sweet and cruel memories, full of life and truth, that bring to life the story of a relationship between mother and
daughter and, at the same time, portrays a country which is distant in time, but still very tangled into our roots.
Donatella Di Pietrantonio was born in a small village in the Abruzzo region, very similar to the places she writes
about. She started writing tales and poems when she was 9 years old.
Publication date: January 2011
Pages: 192
World Rights Available
More than 20.000 copies sold
German Rights sold to Antje Kunstmann
Tropea Award winner for 2011
John Fante Award winner for 2012
3
FICTION - ELLIOT
Laura Mühlbauer
STRONG AS THE STORM
The destiny of three sisters crossing the fate of an entire population in the first half of the 20th Century.
A remarkable debut with an impressive style.
“Very well written, with a harsh style but full of vibes. A picture of Italy with echoes of a far past which capture the
reader with its instinctive power”.
«Corriere della Sera»
“A promising debut which reminds us of Brontë sisters”
«Il Foglio»
A small village in the North of Italy, set along a lake shore. Gianna “The Saint” dies after giving birth to her third
daughter. The father, “Ol Buel”, a scrappy bitter man, doesn’t want to look after the three girls, so the sisters grow
up taking care of each other.
Giulia, Matilde and Agnese are very different. Giulia inherited her mother’s sweetness; Matilde develops an odd
devotion towards her father; Agnese – which never met her mother – grows up as an orphan, free and with no role
models. Agnese, the youngest one, secretly falls in love with the village priest: an impossible love which will last
forever, almost wearing her out to death but, in the end, miraculously restoring her to life.
Around the three sisters, we heard the village voices, unsettled as the water of the lake when the violent storm
called “Sarneghera” shakes boats and destinies. According to an old legend, the “Sarneghera” is brought by two
lovers resting on the lake bottom. In their lives, they were forbidden to be together and now, every time the two
lovers run towards each other and embrace, they shake the water of the lake. Agnese’s love for the priest,
convicted to the same tragic destiny of the legend, has the same force and endurance.
Mühlbauer seems to have stolen the power of her writing from the natural elements of her land.
In a sharp, affectionate and ironic tone, the author intertwines the inner soul of an entire community to the destiny
of a single family.
Laura Mühlbauer was born in Bergamo in 1974 to an Italian mother and a German father. Married with two kids,
she worked as a clerk in the State Court for many years. This is her debut novel.
Publication date: April 2013
Pages: 160
World Rights Available
Two editions in one month
4
FICTION - ELLIOT
Pierpaolo Vettori
THE SISTERS
The corrupted Italy of Tangentopoli narrated by Alice in Wonderland:
will innocence survive in such a crooked world?
An ambitious debut, rich in literary references, with a fresh style.
«TTL – La Stampa»
Between dream and reality, a dark fable and a psychological story, in a continuous metaphor of life.
«la Repubblica»
Veronica is a very special girl. She talks to dead writers which haunt the private library in her house, eats apples
with cloves and feels she’s the only one who can protect her sister Cecilia from worldly or unworldly dangers. Her
wealthy family built its fortune on the secret ingredient of their jam, a product famous all over the world. But times
are changing for them as well, and failure is casting a shadow on their family business, while the first Tangentopoli
scandals start appearing in the newspapers. Help could come from a shady character, an ambiguous doctor who’s
promising the family a way out, but somebody will pay the price of redemption with their death.
Day by day in her journal, Veronica writes about memories, visions, images, along with sudden changes that
subvert the family’s everyday life, while speculators struggle to get their share of the Soffici family’s estate.
Veronica needs to organize her resistance and start playing a cruel game with the world.
Poetic and fascinating, this novel is a cry of war in defense of innocence against the barbarity of soul corruption.
Pierpaolo Vettori was born in a small town near Turin in 1967. He worked as a music critic and fought against his
demons. Some of them were caught and turned into stories.
Publication date: January 2012
Pages: 192
World Rights Available
Finalist in the 2011 edition of Premio Calvino
5
FICTION - ELLIOT
Filippo Strumia
FLUMEN
A powerful debut which plays with the rules of the noir genre to render a surprisingly metaphysical narration
Flumen is an ambitious attempt to push the borders of noir fiction beyond realism, towards metaphysics. It surely
deserves appreciation.
Giancarlo De Cataldo, «la Repubblica»
Flumen is not like any other noir: it is a hybrid between a classic detective novel and an intellectual mystery, and
this is its beauty.
«Il Sole 24 Ore»
The corpse of a gas station attendant, burnt alive and with his legs tied, lay on the floor of a gas station in the city
centre. Around the body, six burnt lizards are disposed in the shape of an hexagon. Between the victim’s teeth,
another lizard’s skeleton. Police chief Capuano, a very relaxed and sly fellow, is investigating on the weird murder
focusing on another attendant, Edmondo, which is an intellectual who abandoned his academic studies to follow a
peculiar way of life. He is convinced that homeless people are demons serving some evil forces. In the next few
days, more killings spread, and the police chief will discover a link between the victims and some dangerous
rituals…
Visionary, lyrical, mysterious, an extraordinary debut.
FILIPPO STRUMIA
Born in 1962, lives and works in Rome as a psychiatrist. He published a highly praised collection of poems,
Pozzanghere (Einaudi, 2011).
Publication Date: October 2012
Pages: 320
World Rights Available
6
FICTION - ELLIOT
Renato Ghiotto
THE SLAVE
Publication Date: May 2013
Pages: 320
World Rights Available
The Slave is a religious adventure, a mystique attempt
lived without the comfort of the faith.
Cesare Garboli
An intriguing novel about an ambiguous relationship with sadomasochistic shadows between two women
Margaret is a rich and bored movie star; Silvia is a wellborn girl with an excellent education which decide to work as lady-inwaiting by the famous actress. Since the very beginning, a subtle dynamic of domination and submission rises between the two
women and the author describes, with extraordinary psychological intensity, how their relationship changes day by day: Silvia
begins as a servant and ends up as a slave, while she develops feelings of friendship, sexual attraction and rivalry towards the
mistress. Men stay in the background as mere instruments of power and as a presence in the erotic fantasies of the two
ladies, who explore every aspect – even the most ancestral – of femininity, dependence, love, trust and abandon.
First published by Rizzoli in 1967, this extraordinary novel had a big success in Italy; shortlisted for the Premio Strega, it was
translated into seven languages and turned into a movie by the great director Pasquale Festa Campanile.
RENATO GHIOTTO
Born in Montecchio Maggiore (Vicenza) in 1923, he started to work very young as a journalist for the newspaper “Il Veneto”. In
1943 he had to take refuge in Switzerland where he worked in the refugee camps. Back home, in 1945 he became director of
“Il Veneto”, but in 1950 he quitted and moved to Argentina, where he had the chance to meet Jorge Luis Borges.
Back in Italy in 1953, he worked in advertising and journalism. In 1967 he published his first novel: The Slave. He wrote other
three novels, many short stories, essays on cinema and art. He died near Vicenza in 1986.
Silvano Ceccherini
THE TRANSFER
With a foreword by Filippo Bologna
Publication Date: June 2013
Pages: 240
World Rights Available
It’s incredible that this author – who would have the right
to self-pity (twenty years in prison! A whole life!) – had the
strength and the courage to preserve his bright intellect
from failure and decay. That’s how a great writer is born:
at great cost, always. Giorgio Bassani
Called “the Italian Jean Genet” for their similar life experience, Silvano Ceccherini began his writing career in prison, serving a
twenty year sentence. His first novel, The Transfer, was published by Feltrinelli in 1963 – during his last months of reclusion –
and immediately earned the attention and praise of both critics and writers such as Carlo Cassola and Giorgio Bassani.
The story is apparently simple: the transfer of a detainee from a prison to another. And yet, the power and the depth of
Ceccherini’s language open a door to a world that free people mostly ignore: through the eyes, the thoughts and the feelings of
a prisoner, we can see that such things as a landscape, a running girl, a family waiting for a train, a smile from a kind officer
are experiences much more intense that we can imagine.
SILVANO CECCHERINI
Born in Livorno in 1915, Ceccherini began a life of small thefts and juvenile delinquency at an early age. Stevedore, anarchic,
tramp, robber, from 1934 to 1939 he served in the French foreign legion (later he described this experience in the novel
Stones on Every Street, published by Rizzoli in 1968) and after the war he was convicted to twenty years of prison for illicit
traffic and robbery. He spent most of his conviction in the maximum high-security prison of Porto Azzurro. He died as a free
man in his hometown in 1974. Among his works, there are The Mail Lady (1964), After the Anger (1965), The Mirror In the
Elevator (1967) and God’s Adventurer (1971).
7
FICTION - ELLIOT
Manlio Cancogni
THE COUSIN
PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER 2011
PAGES: 192
WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE
Nora and Nino are cousins. As young children, they met for the first time and spent the Summer together in
Tuscany. Nora is older than Nino, and is smart, easy-going, reckless, beautiful. Nino is quiet and introvert. A strong
bond is now tied between the two, a bond that will keep them together even when Nora will move to England and
then to USA, and get married. The Cousin is the story of an impossible love, a quest for happiness through two
decades with on the background the big hopes and promises of Italian economic boom.
THE SURPRISE
PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 2009
PAGES: 350
WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE
This story is from The Surprise, and Tolstoj himself,
the greatest of all, couldn’t have written it better
than this.
«Corriere della Sera»
The best short stories from one of the most influent Italian writers of the XX century chosen by the author himself
and collected in a single volume for the first time.
TALK TO ME, TELL ME SOMETHING
PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 2010
PAGES: 192
WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE
Originally published by Feltrinelli in 1962, this is the intense love story of the narrator and his wife Sara. A stream
of consciousness recalling more of twenty years of passion and dreams. From the early days of marriage and his
first experiences as a journalist and playwright, to his exile in Paris with a younger lover, from where he’ll go back
to family life, to their love that Nora kept alive. Talk to me, tell me something is an incredibly modern, merciless
and aching story about the deepest meaning of love and relationships, a brilliant and sad parable of married life
and the search for happiness.
Manlio Cancogni was born in Lucca in 1916. During his long and successful career he was awarded the most
prestigious Italian literary awards, such as Bagutta, Strega and Viareggio. Defined as «the greatest Italian living
writer», Manlio Cancogni passed through a century marking the Italian cultural history of the last seventy years.
8
FICTION - ELLIOT
Andrea Giovene
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
GIULIANO DI SANSEVERO
With a preface by Emanuele Trevi
Publication date: May 2012 | Pages: 960
English manuscript available
World Rights Available
It's a strange and memorable book, studied, mannered, yet oddly tender and humane.
«The Observer»
The story is settled in different places in Europe, between 1903 and 1957. Alongside the portrait of those decisive fifty years in
history, the author describes a process of psychological, human and cultural maturation of the main character which, in
disagreement with his family, leaves it in order to find a way to live his life in harmony with himself. Five volumes, each with a
life of its own and readable separately, comprise this ambitious project, with a structure resembling those of the great novels
from the XIX century, told in a unique style which contributed to creating a literary success that spread all over Europe.
In 1965, Andrea Giovene printed a thousand copies of the second book of The Autobiography at his expense. One of those
copies got on the desk of Finnish writer Edvard Gummerus, who obtained a translation rights agreement for Giovene’s books in
the four Scandinavian languages, and promoted the author’s name for the Nobel prize. The raising interest got to Italy, and
Rizzoli decided to publish the whole saga of Sansevero. The Italian edition was soon followed by foreign editions in Spain,
France and Germany.
Andrea Giovene was born in Naples in 1904 of a noble family, a cosmopolite, he left home as a young man travelling around
the world and published two novels before joining the army and being sent to Greece during World War II. After spending many
years in concentration camps in Poland and Germany, he returned to Italy to work in a post-war commission for the Italian
Government and cooperated with «Il Mattino» newspaper as vice-director. He died in 1995.
Enrico Pea
THE BOOK OF MOSCARDINO
Publication date: September 2008 | Pages: 448
English manuscript available
World Rights Available
“The time has come to announce that Italy has a writer,
and it’s ages since I confirmed that any country has one!”
Ezra Pound
After more than half a century, Pea’s work not only has lost none of its own originality and strength, but reread today it takes on
even more of its absolute value, timeless and above the cultural trends of the moment and of the classics. Despite this, or
perhaps precisely because of its “peculiarity”, the name Enrico Pea has now been totally forgotten. The Book of Moscardino
comprising four short novels whose stories are interconnected – Moscardino, translated into English by Ezra Pound, The
Saintly Face, Magometto and The Servant of the Devil – was published in 1944 by Garzanti. After being reprinted by Einaudi at
the end of the seventies at the request of Italo Calvino (though, without Magometto), it has finally been reintroduced here in its
original form. The Book of Moscardino is titled after the nickname of its young protagonist and tells – through poetic
autobiography, mythico-fantastic twists and extraordinary narrative – the story of his family and relationship with his legendary
grandfather, who led a “wasted life” like “wandering from dream to dream in different countries”. Enrico Pea’s greatness and
singularity lie in this character, suspended between story, mythology and autobiography. Pea is considered one of the greatest
Italian writers of the twentieth century, loved by Eugenio Montale, Manlio Cancogni and Carlo Carrà, and of whom Giuseppe
Ungaretti wrote: “Some moments will surprise you for their density, propriety, violence, their azure infinity, for a humanity
etched out by a word still moist with earth – and shiny with rust – like a blade of grass springing up to laugh in the sun, a
beautiful morning: like only Giotto and who knows who else in the world knew how to do”.
Enrico Pea was born in Seravezza, in the province of Lucca, in 1881. When he was fifteen years old, he left home to be a
shepherd, then a deck boy and finally emigrated to Egypt. Self-taught, writing for him was a revelation. Ungaretti encouraged
him and pushed him to write, contributing to the publication of Fole in 1910, his first work. Though, it was Giacomo Puccini
who facilitated the real discovery of Pea by recommending him to the Treves Publisher Brothers, which, upon his insistence,
determined the publication of Moscardino in 1922. In 1914, Pea returned to Italy and settled in Viareggio, where for a long
time he was a theatre impresario. He passed away in 1958.
9
FICTION - ELLIOT
Sacha Naspini
OUR ABSENCE
Publication Date: April 2012
Pages: 192
World Rights Available
Two little boys discover an Etruscan tomb and decide to excavate it secretly. Twenty years later, a girl is kidnapped
in a motel somewhere in the USA. What’s the link between these two events? Our Absence is the story of what
happened in these twenty years, of the events involving three generations of a Tuscan family. It’s the story of a
father who is unable to fulfill his duties, and a mother who is too young to protect her son, and above all it’s the
story of a vengeance which burns a whole life. In a unique style, Sacha Naspini depicts the controversial and
intense feelings of youth, the sudden coming of age, the invincible power of hope and love. Or merely, the desire
to find a place to call home.
THE BEARERS
Publication Date: October 2009
Pages: 160
World Rights Available
A surprisingly intense novel. True, sanguine,
well structured and written.
«Corriere della Sera»
1918, Tuscanian country. To avoid the call of duty during the First World War, a man hides with his wife and their
nine year old boy in a hole dug in a forest. The family spends most of the time there: the man goes out only to get
water and to hunt, but it’s not so easy to get food, so they sometimes have to dig in the wet dirt to find a worm or a
root to chew, or decide whether to eat human flesh. This is when the story of Bastiano starts. He begins working
for a farmer as a stable boy, and falls in love with Sara, his master’s daughter. But mud never meets light, so
Bastiano will dirty himself, killing guilty and innocent ones, running away, losing himself and finding himself, years
later, in that hole in the forest, where he truly belongs. The Bearersis a distortion of a coming of age novel, a wild
and angry story, in which the real main character is human bestiality, a feature of the ones who kill to survive. A
black tale in thirteen scenes, with echoes of Truffaut and Stephen King.
Sacha Naspini was born in Grosseto in 1976. He lives between Tuscany and Paris. He published novels with Il
Foglio and Voras Edizioni.
10
FICTION - ELLIOT
Marilù Oliva
LA GUERRERA SERIES
Salsa, murder and Santeria mingle in a funny, original
impossible to put down crime series
With this beautiful series, la Guerrera enters the Hall of Fame of Italian noir.
Massimo Carlotto
Marilù Oliva's style is aggressive and full of rhythm, as her heroine la Guerrera is.
«la Repubblica»
Great narrative skills which enable the author to give shape to many intriguing characters
«Il Sole 24 Ore»
¡TÚ LA PAGARÁS!
Publication date: June 2010
Pages: 288
Bologna. It’s almost dawn and in a salsa and merengue club the body of Thomás Delgado, the club barman and
womanizer, is found in the toilet. His girlfriend, la Guerrera, a wild and impulsive real salsera, is one of the most
suspected of committing the murder. La Guerrera works in a local newpaper, and along with dancing, she has two
real passions: Dante Alighieri and French fries. As soon as the news are spread she begins investigating on the
murder case. Her search interferes with the investigation of inspector Gabriele Basilica, which is thrown by la
Guerrera into the salsa world, in a spiral of fascination and paradoxes, lies and suspects, in which he’ll meet
dance teachers, beautiful dancers, ladies with a lot of work done, exhibitionists, and so on. But when all the
investigations seem fruitless, a little help from Santeria could lead to the murderer…
FUEGO
Publication date: June 2011
Pages: 256
A boiling-hot Summer in Bologna: a pyromaniac is setting the city on fire, and a dead body is found in a weird
scene linked to some shamanic rites. The post-mortem lead the police to the Latin music ballrooms in the outskirt
of the town. Once again, la Guerrera starts investigating and looking for the murderer, who is about to kill again…
MALASUERTE
Publication date: September 2012
Pages: 256
Bologna, nightime. A dead body is found, the victim has been robbed and killed with a weird and unusual weapon,
chloroform. The murderer is to be looked for in a gang of Latinos and Italians, so la Guerrera is involved by the
police as an expert of Hispanic community. In the meanwhile, another dead poisoned body is found…
Marilù Oliva lives in Bologna. She writes for literary magazines and websites. Hers is one of the most interesting
new voices of Italian crime fiction.
11
FICTION - ULTRA
Massimo Bisotti
BLUE MOON
The Opposite Way of Dreams
«I think love has a breaking point and once you get through it you can’t go back. It’s that very moment when you
get out of your rational clothes and you jump into the sea, forgiving to put on the heart preserver even if you can’t
swim. And perhaps that moment is the most precious recklessness of your life.»
One night, after a party, Meg meets George and immediately feels that something important is happening, as if
George unlocked a room in her heart that has always been closed. Everything is so overwhelming and beautiful
that it takes a while for Meg to realize an incredible truth: George is with her only in dreams, he is a dream
himself, a lucid dream, so vivid that it becomes a second reality.
Meg desires to live only in this parallel world and she passes all her days waiting for the moment she will fall
asleep and meet her true Love. But things are not so simple, and the vision, day after day, night after night, begins
to fade into something confused until one day George tells her about a book: Blue Moon by Damien Sinclair. A
book which – as Meg soon discovers – really exists and whose author fell into a coma right after publishing it. Meg
doesn’t hesitate and flies to find him. Will the girl who wants to live in dreams wake up the man who sent her such
a powerful and dreamy love messenger? Will dreams go backwards, in the opposite way?
Blue Moon was first published in spring 2012 by a small publisher and, thanks to an amazing word of mouth, it
has been reprinted seven times, selling much more than 15.000 copies. We had good reason to think this was
just the beginning of a bigger event, that’s why we decided to republish it in our imprint ULTRA: sales continue to
grow, everyday on Facebook and Twitter thousands of users post quotes and passages from the book. Blue Moon
is a growing cult.
Massimo Bisotti was born in Rome, where he currently lives. He studied Literature and piano and has a deep
interest in psychologies. When he writes, he hopes that words will heal his wounds and turn them into scars.
Pubblication Date: March 2013
Pages 192
World Rights Available
More than 30.000 copies sold all throughly
12
FICTION
OTHER TITLES
Pulsatilla The Ballad of Dried Prunes | Pubblication Date: June 2008 | Pages 264 |Rights sold to France (Au
diable Vauvert) and Germany (Graf Verlag) | More than 100.000 copies sold
This book isn’t just a good read or simply the autobiography of a twenty-year-old Italian girl, it’s a practical guide to
all of life’s more ambiguous aspects, from hairstyles to the consultation of the I Ching. This book will bring tears to
your eyes.
Margherita Giacobino Out of the ordinary | Publication Date: June 2010 | Pages: 256
Dolores and Debora have never met. But when they’re both twenty their fates mingle. Will they reach happiness,
or disaster?
Luca Di Persio Moment Zero | Publication Date: June 2011 | Pages: 256
A car accident which seems a tragic fatality, a secret organization capable of enacting the death for their rich and
powerful clients, givingthem a new identity and a new face: Paolo Assi, a police officer and night-time killer, and
Francesco Gualtieri, scientific researcher, will have to face those two apparently unlinked issues.
Gianni Miraglia Die Milan, Die! |Publication Date: March 2011 | Pages: 256
Violent, harsh, apocalyptic, Die Milan, die! Is an extraordinary and true to life portrait of what Italy could become in
a few years, told by one of the most original and nonconformist writers of our time.
Jacob Popper Ereticus. Galileo’s Last Truth | Publication Date: January 2011 | Pages: 282
A precise and detailed reconstruction of the struggle of men who raise against the fierce laws of Catholic trials.
Maurizio Blatto Backdoor | Publication Date: November 2010 | Pages: 224
Backdoor, Turin: we’re open. To what? Everything, more or less. And everybody. This is the story of our clients,
even the most improbable, the ones you wouldn’t believe they’re real. But they are, and they’re here, in our
legendary record shop. This is a place which is so true and unbelievable that is more pop than a Beach Boys
chorus.
Barbara Alberti Gospel According to Mary | Publication Date: October 2007 | Pages: 156 | English manuscript
available
Charming and lyrical, this is not the story of the wise and silent woman portrayed by the gospels, but of an
inquisitive girl who wants to weave her destiny on her own.
13
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Sabina de Gregori
and
Christian Guémy
C215
A STENCIL MASTER
Sabina de Gregori explains the story and the artistic path of Christian Guémy, realizing the most complete
catalogue of his work.
«Il Messaggero»
Passionate and well-researched.
«Alto Adige»
Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Rome, Sao Paulo, Jerusalem, Los Angeles are just some of the cities where Christian
Guémy – a.k.a. C215 – have left his painted tracks.
C215 is one of the most respected street artist in the world, alongside with Banksy and Obey. He frequently
cooperates with worldwide galleries and his works are sold by the most influential auction houses.
On the street art scene for over 20 years, he became an artistic reference thanks to his mastery of the stencil
technique applied to portraits. His favorite subjects are common people, kids, women, immigrants, homeless, all
portrayed in natural poses and seized in their most intimate and personal moments. Vitry-sur-Seine – the town in
the suburbs of Paris where he lives – is an open sky museum where his portraits surprise people passing by.
Those vibrant and pensive faces seem to dig into human identity giving dignity even to the most decadent
suburban landscapes. Somewhere his precise and unique style traces an anatomy of the pain, while elsewhere he
paints lightness and joy of living with his skilful and original use of the color.
This book is the outcome of the close collaboration between the artist and Sabina de Gregori and is, at the same
time, C215’s official biography and the complete catalogue of his work.
SABINA DE GREGORI
Born in Geneve in 1982, she lives and works in Rome. A degree in Fine Arts, de Gregori studies contemporary art
forms and street art. C215 is her third book after Banksy. The Art Vandal (Castelvecchi, 2010) and Shepard Fairey
a.k.a. Obey (Castelvecchi, 2011).
CHRISTIAN GUÉMY
Born in Bondy (Île-de-France) in 1973, he lives in Vitry-Sur-Seine and works all over the world.
Publication date: April 2013
Pages: 220
World Rights Available
English manuscript available
14
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Sabina de Gregori
SHEPARD FAIREY A.K.A. OBEY
Life and Works of the King of Poster Art
An exhaustive and richly illustrated biography of an
American dream of the Zeros.
«la Repubblica»
After a triumphant voting campaign, Barack Obama, Neo-President of the USA, took some time to write a letter to
Mr. Shepard Fairey, a.k.a. Obey, and thank him for drawing his poster which, according to many observers,
represented the real key to the President’s success. The poster, a red and blue portrait of Obama with the word
Hope written below, was soon seen all over the world, and became an icon as famous as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn.
Obey was born in South Carolina in 1970, and became famous by covering the American cities with stickers and
posters. Obey ’s politic s took shape focusing on crucial issues such as propaganda and social control and
operates by the rules of guerrilla marketing. He also committed himself to pacifist causes, producing many posters
against the Iraqi war. With a recognizable graphic style, Obey comments contemporary events, and acts as a
spokesperson which with an artistic approach becomes a social critic of our globalised society.
Publicatione Date: November 2011 | Pages: 128 |World Rights Available
BANKSY
The Art Vandal
The first biography - precise and engaging - on the
art terrorist.
«Il Sole 24 Ore»
More than 20.000 copies sold
His identity is unknown. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with
graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been
featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti
directly himself; but art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the
problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder. Fans look for his stencils into the streets. Galleries
opened their doors to his works. This is the Banksy effect. Despite receiving enormous media attention Banksy’s
real identity remains the cause of much debate. De Gregori’s book is a journey into his world, from the walls he
stencilled to the galleries in which he left his trademark, a journey which soon becomes an analysis of Britain’s
new culture and society.
Publicatione Date: October 2010 | Pages: 256 |World Rights Available
15
NON FICTION - ELLIOT
Ileana Florescu
CALLIOPE AND I
Introduction by Russell Banks
Both conceptual and popular, unconventional and
mainstream, serious and highly ironical. A homage
to literary good manners.
«L’Espresso»
A very peculiar book, an experiment, a narrative hybrid between photography and written word
Utilizing the so-called “fotoromanzo” format, a popular Italian medium and technique—carefully staged photographs with text—
the author reveals herself through ‘a third party’ by translating into images scenes and dialogues extracted from among the
classics of literature.
Twelve scenes which deal with the themes of love, internal and generational conflicts, the yearning to be heard, bourgeois
hypocrisy, censorship, and dictatorship through a surprising accord between words and images. An extraordinary narrative set
by the artist in places familiar to her, such as an abandoned family house on the Appian way, the beach of Posada in Sardinia,
the photographer’s studio, etc. The assembling of faithfully transcribed extracts, the choice of both settings and of players,
selected from among the artist’s friends and relatives who have a particular correspondence with the literary characters they
interpret, endow the works with a unique originality and power. The twelve ‘portraits’merge into a large self-portrait of Florescu,
who in this circumstance is also screenwriter, director, set designer, costume designer, and actress, all the while paying
homage to the relationship between life, literature, and art.
TITLES OF WORKS DEPICTED:
A. Moravia, Mistaken Ambitions, I. Turgenev, Virgin Soil, G. Flaubert, Sentimental Education, M. Bulgakov, The Master and
Margarita, A. De Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, G. Ledda, Padre Padrone: The Education of a Shepherd, R. Musil, The Man
Without Qualities, M. De Cervantes, Don Quixote, A. Camus, Jonas, or the Artist at Work, F. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment,
H. D. Thoreau, Walden, G. Orwell, Animal Farm.
Ileana Florescu was born in Asmara from an Italian mother and English father of Rumanian origins. After following her family in
its numerous relocations, she settled in Italy. She received her degree in Literature and Philosophy and published a number of
historical essays. She exhibited her works in prestigious art galleries and museums in Italy and Europe.
16
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Bruno Amoroso
EURO HANGING IN THE BALANCE
Italy and some parts of Europe are on the edge of an
economic disaster. The united currency is swaying
while the plungers get even richer. Who is
responsible for the crisis? Could getting back to the
old currencies be the solution to avoid the abyss?
Publication date: September 2011
Pages: 192
World Rights Available
At the dawn of the new millennium, European economic ambitions sounded like a revolution. Ten years ago, Euro was
introduced with the aim of uniting the different national currencies of Eurozone members and coordinating the monetary
policies of the EU countries. The goal of the new currency was also to guarantee development and occupation and to protect
the economies of the member states from financial speculation. But after a decade the countries which have adopted Euro
show a delay in the economic growth compared to the ones which kept national monetary sovereignty. Bruno Amoroso
analyzes causes and responsibilities of this failure. A crisis which is just the last of a series begun in the middle of the 1980s,
after Reagan’s deregulation, and continued with Clinton, Bush and Obama. Euro hanging in the balance is an extremely clear
text where the author, instead of indulge into the current euroscepticism, proposes plausible solutions which should be
adopted by Governments as soon as possible.
Bruno Amoroso and Jesper Jespersen
EUROPE BEYOND EURO
The reasons of the economic disaster and the
reconstruction of the community project
Publication date: September 2012
Pages: 177
World Rights Available
The failure of the Euro is a death foretold: the European monetary union doesn’t have a solid background in the political
Institutions, and the government of seventeen countries is committed to a Bank. Nowadays the consequences of this situation
are clear to everyone. Cold War first and Globalization then derailed the peace project of the European Union towards a
situation of unbridled competition. Between the countries of Northern and Western Europe and those of Central and Southern
Europe there is now a deep rift, which can be healed only through a regeneration of the project itself. Bruno Amoroso – one of
the first economists who forewarned about the upcoming economic collapse – and Jesper Jespersen have defined the causes
and responsibilities of this failure, pointing out the reasons of the current discordance about policies and economic
proposition. An highly valuable text, clearly exposing the alternative solutions to avoid a deeper crisis and to relaunch the
process of monetary union in a sustainable way, involving all the Member Countries.
Bruno Amoroso is an Italian economist and academic. He studied at La Sapienza, in Rome, under the tutorship of famous
economist Federico Caffè. He’s been teaching in many universities around the world and he is currently Docent Emeritus at the
University of Roskilde (Denmark) and Jean Monnet Chair holder. He is consultant for many European and International
organizations on topics related to associative economy.
Jesper Jespersen is professor of economics at the Department of Society and Globalisation of the University of Roskilde, where
he has been teaching and conducting research since 1996. Previously he taught international economics at the Copenhagen
Business School. one of the most influential Scandinavian expert of Keynesian economics.
17
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Giuliano Santoro
CITIZEN GRILLO
Five Star Movement and digital populism in
the crisis of Italian political parties
A very interesting book.
«la Repubblica»
This book debunks many myths.
«Corriere della Sera»
A strange amphibious animal is growing in the Italy of crisis and infinite transition: the Five Star
Movement, a strange creature which – as well as its leader Beppe Grillo – speaks with the tv language
and operates mainly in the internet, natural habitats of its members and electors. This Movement has
been generated by the radical changes that we are experiencing in the time of the global crisis:
Democracy impoverished, and traditional political parties are losing their meaning.
Besides, Grillo embodies many contradictions of our time: he talks about “direct democracy” while he
handles the Movement despotically and with no transparency; he wants to demolish the traditional
system of parties but he talks all the times about elections, electoral rolls, polling places.
In this book – the first so detailed about the story and the role of the Italian comedian and his “antiparty” – we find a deep analysis of linguistic codes and communication tricks that increase its fortune,
and a thesis on the phenomenon of “digital populism” which, far from being a solution, is just another
gene mutation of the chronic diseases affecting our democratic system.
Giuliano Santoro is a journalist. He writes mainly about politics, culture and society on newspapers and
on the internet. Citizen Grillo is his third book.
Publication Date: February 2013 | Pages 192 | World Rights Available
10.000 copies sold
3 editions in 2 months
Great International Media Attention
18
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Gabriele Di Battista
Carlo Pontesilli
Maurizio Turco
PARADISE IOR
Preface by Gianluigi Nuzzi
The Vatican Bank between financial crimes, politics and money laundering from the origins to the
Monte dei Paschi crack
Why there won’t be a real change in the Church unless the controversial issue of Ior is solved? Why
between the breaking messages of the new Pope Bergoglio has necessarily to be the reform of the
Institute for the Works of Religion (Ior)? The reasons are explained in this severe investigative report
which reveals multiple scandals still unknown and inacceptable for the Church.
From the foundation of the Institute to the Monte dei Paschi crack, an analysis of the situations where
the Vatican finances played the main role: the presumed connection between monsignor Marcinkus
and the Banda della Magliana, the unsolved mysteries regarding the deaths of Calvi and Sindona, the
bankruptcy of the Banco Ambrosiano, the Bribesville cases, the relationship with Jp Morgan and other
financial institutions from Suisse or Luxemburg.
Documents, files, parliamentary records, bank account records never published before: thanks to all
this material, Paradise Ior is fundamental for understanding the importance of a tax haven that the
Vatican won’t give up so easily.
Maurizio Turco, politician and writer, is vice president of the Transnational Radical Party and, until
March 2013, he has been member of the Italian Parliament. He co-wrote with Curzio Maltese and Carlo
Pontesilli the best-seller The Offertory. How Much Church Costs to Italian People (Feltrinelli, 2008).
Carlo Pontesilli is an expert of Vatican finances. Besides The Offertory, he co-wrote with Gianluigi Nuzzi
Vatican, Inc (Chiarelettere, 2009).
Gabriele Di Battista is a writer and expert of Vatican finances.
Publication date: April 2013 | Pages: 300 | World Rights Available
19
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Franco Rizzi
MEDITERRANEAN UP IN ARMS
Foreword by Lucio Caracciolo
Updated Edition
Rizzi's essay is the most accurate and exhaustive
book on the arab revolution you can read nowadays
«la Repubblica»
After the insurrections started almost three years ago, the situation in the Southern Mediterranean is still unclear. The
oligarchies long backed by Western governments fell apart under the pressure of the masses. What is happening to the new
political and economic structures of an area very close to Europe? None of the international observers had expected this, and
now it is difficult to draw assumptions about the final outcome of the Arab Spring. A domino effect has invested the Arab world.
Mediterranean Up in Arms has been the first in-depth analysis of events that, starting from Tunisia, have affected Egypt, Libya
and other countries in the same region. A detailed description that reconstructs the historical background of strikes and street
demonstrations taken place in these states. A reflection on the formation of the political class in the aftermath of
decolonization, which after the oil crisis of 1973 has created a limited democracy and a rift between the ruling class and the
rest of society. Franco Rizzi highlights how the responsibility of Europe in these countries has pursued a strategy based on
energy sources hoarding, the creation of protected markets, the defense to the bitter ends of Israel's security and the fear of
political Islamism. For the first time a work carefully examines the role that social networks and global communication have
had in the spread and consolidation of protests from the Green Wave movement until the enforcement of repressive
interventions by the Egyptian regime and the Libyan civil war outbreak.
Professor Franco Rizzi is UNIMED Secretary General and Director of MedArabNews. He is also author of publications about
Middle East issues.
Publication date: April 2011 |Pages: 160 | World Rights Available
Valeria Fraschetti
WALKING IN SAREE
India Isn’t a Country for Women Yet
A journey among the protagonists of a revolution
portrayed with vivid colors.
«la Repubblica»
Being a woman in India means living among prejudices and harassment. In spite of appearances, politicians in saree and
provoking actresses, India is a deeply rooted patriarchal country. Recently drew up statistics confirm this: girls are less worthy
of being fed or cured than boys, and female child mortality in some Indian regions is 6% higher than male mortality. Still,
travelling in the country looking for stories of female mishaps, you can discover that Indian women, maybe because of this
intimate knowledge of suffering, know how to tolerate tyranny and being overwhelmed. Journalist Valeria Fraschetti narrates a
two year journey of research to discover a fascinating country still full of contradictions in which women are still destined to pay
the price of social inequality.
Valeria Fraschetti was born in 1980. Journalist, she lived in India for two years and cooperated with «La Stampa» and «Il
Riformista». Now she writes for «la Repubblica». This is her first book.
Publication date: October 2011 |Pages: 224 | World Rights Available
20
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Angela Camuso
THE PREY
The confession of a victim.
Between faith and hypocrisy, the true story
of the biggest scandal ever occurred in the
Church
Camuso wrote another excellent book.
«la Repubblica»
Vasco was 14 when he was raped by father Ruggero Conti, a modern and charismatic priest, beloved by people and respected
by politicians. A powerful churchman, chief of a populous parish in Rome and bursar of the Curia. Since the beginning of his
pastoral career and for over 20 years, the priest repeatedly raped many teenagers, protected by the accomplice silence of the
clergy, by the hypocrisy of the parishioners and, above all, by the fear and the shame of the victims. Through the story of Vasco
(pseudonym of a real kid) and the narrative elaboration of legal documents and many interviews, this books digs into the
wounded soul of a victim and, at the same time, tells us a universal story.
The story of this priest is unique in Italy: accused of violence on at least seven minors, he has been arrested and, in 2011,
convicted in first instance to 15 years and 4 months, after a trial which divided the public opinion. A terrible story where even
the most frightful details coincide with the truth. A touching book written in a powerful style alternating the third person of the
report to the first person of Vasco who narrate not just the violation he suffered but also his “normal” everyday life as a
teenager, his relations with friends and his faith in God.
A troublesome, brave book which joins the accuracy of the journalistic report to the power of the narration.
Publication date: November 2012 | Pages: 280 | World Rights Available
Angela Camuso
NO MERCY
The true story of the Banda della Magliana
from 1977 until today
A necessary book.
Enrico Mentana, chief of the News Broadcasting of
Italian television channel La7
The most complete book about the history of the Banda della Magliana. A best seller updated with the latest unsettling events
about the most violent criminal organization in Rome. Journalist Angela Camuso examined hundreds of police reports and files,
letting the protagonists speak. The criminals, miserable children of poverty, tell us a dreadful and captivating sequence of
murders, crimes and mysteries which begun at the end of the troubled Seventies and are still going on.
The Magliana gang achieved control of the heroin market in Rome, removing all competitors and keeping the power thanks to
numerous connections with the highest powers of the State and Church, with Cosa Nostra and Camorra, with neo-fascist
terrorism, secret services and corrupt politicians, magistracy and the police. And when everyone thought the Banda was totally
dissolved, new tragic events linked to the old boss made clear that their power hasn’t died out yet. Antonio Mancini – former
chief of the gang – wrote that this book is «the only one that tells the truth and retrace facts without adding anything. The
whole story is here». No mercy is a powerfully written narration which shocks with the rough violence of the truth.
Angela Camuso
Angela Camuso is an investigative journalist specialized in crime and law. She writes for several newspapers and magazines
such as «l’Unità», «l’Espresso», «Il Venerdì di Repubblica».
Publication date: August 2012 | Pages: 270 | World Rights Available
21
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Giuseppe De Marzo
THE ANATOMY OF A REVOLUTION
Justice, environment and work: inverting
the course to beat the crisis
An innovative, original book.
«Il manifesto»
We are facing one of the most serious crisis of the contemporary history. The circumstances of this crisis are economical,
financial, ecological, energetic: a very complex situation which cannot be faced with old models and theories from the past. A
drastic change is needed and the key concepts are justice and sustainability. Representative democracy is no longer able to
face one of the most serious danger for the humanity: ecological crisis. The changes in the environmental policies surely won’t
arrive from the big multinational corporations, the international organizations or the academic world; they can only come from
the movements for environmental and social justice, which are deeply calling into question the current development model.
In this book – a critically-constructive analysis – Italian economist Giuseppe De Marzo describes the birth of environmental
justice movements and clarifies how they changed the terms and perspectives of the question. He faces the relations between
ecological and human rights, environmental racism and movements, deliberative democracy and pluralism.
Economist, journalist, activist and writer, Giuseppe De Marzo worked for ten years in the Latin American social movements
together with the local rural population. He has been active also in Italy in several organizations of the civil society: committees,
associations, research centers, trade unions. He wrote many books about social and environmental justice and no global
movement.
Publication date: October 2012 | Pages: 237 | World Rights Available
Sergio Canciani
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
The neo-tsarism in the time of Putin: a trip into
the former Soviet Empire between corruption,
nostalgia and democratic illusions
Canciani knows Russia very well. This book is a rich
tableau, a travel journal which gives us many
answers about Former Soviet Union.
«Il Sole 24 Ore»
Who truly are Russian oligarchs? Where do they come from and how do they behave? They wear designer suits, French ties
(they just learned how to tie the knot) and Italian leather shoes. They play long pool matches in the billiard rooms. They have
Mercedes parked in the backyard, lovely dachas among the birches. Their women wear fur coats and high heels. In other
words: money, money, money. But where does all this money come from? The answer is easy: corruption. Here comes the postcommunist revolution: in the well-ventilated houses, the clean toilets, soaps and deodorants. But under his bright surface, the
level of the democracy is still very low and those who try to tell the truth are often brutally hushed-up. Sergio Canciani –
longtime correspondent of the main Italian newscast – has watched very closely Russian events in the last two decades, the
years of the establishment of Putin’s neo-tsarism. The former Soviet “Empire” is getting more and more important in the
international scenario – mostly thanks to its huge energy deposits – and is maintaining relationship with the western countries
as much as with the “rogue States”. A deep analysis of a country full of contradictions which represents a disquieting and still
fascinating enigma.
Sergio Canciani is a journalist. He has been the chief of the Moscow office of the Italian National Broadcast (RAI) for 13 years.
From Russia – where he lived until 2011 – he realized more than 7000 reportages.
Publication date: May 2012 |Pages: 185 |World Rights Available
22
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Leonetta Bentivoglio
MY OWN VERDI
Fifteen operas in the words of the greatest
performers of our time
Fifteen operas, twenty interviews: twenty conversations with some of the greatest opera performers of
our time – music directors, singers, directors – which were asked to confront themselves with the great
Italian Maestro.
Loretta Bentivoglio – music and theatre critic writing for «la Repubblica» – asked each of them to talk
about their favorite Verdi’s opera, the one that involved them the most, both professionally and
emotionally. Talking about Verdi, they bring up memories and thoughts, explaining their own vision of
theatre, music, singing. My own Verdi is a perfect introduction to the most important melodramas of the
composer – each interview is followed by an annotation about the opera describing themes, style and
execution – but is also an occasion to reflect on the modernity of this genre, on its diffusion and on the
latest innovations of the mise-en-scene.
The volume is enriched by a gallery of scene pictures and portraits of the interviewed and by a thorough
appendix about Giuseppe Verdi’s work.
Interviews with: Leo Nucci (Nabucco); Werner Herzog (I due foscari); Renato Bruson (Macbeth); Leyla
Gencer (Macbeth); Jonathan Miller (Rigoletto); Luca Ronconi (Il Trovatore); Liliana Cavani (La traviata);
Zubin Mehta (La traviata); Gianandrea Noseda (I vespri siciliani); Luciano Pavarotti (Un ballo in
maschera); Giuseppe Sinopoli (La forza del destino); Myung-Whun Chung (Don Carlo); Riccardo Chailly
(Aida); Franco Zeffirelli (Aida); Antonio Pappano (Messa da Requiem); Claudio Abbado (Simon
Boccanegra); Mirella Freni (Simon Boccanegra); Daniele Gatti (Otello); Peter Stein (Otello); Riccardo
Muti (Falstaff).
Essayist and journalist, Leonetta Bentivoglio has a degree in Philosophy at La Sapienza University.
Expert in ballet, theatre and opera, she worked as consultant for many musical and theatrical festivals
and events in Italy and abroad. Since 1992, she writes for «la Repubblica»: she has interviewed
international protagonists of art and culture, and attended the most important events, from La Scala to
Bayreuth, from Salzburg Festival to Avignone.
She wrote many books about music, theatre, cinema and art.
Pubblication Date: April 2013
232 pages
World Rights Available
23
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Paola Sorge
GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO
The Life of an Overman
February 19, 1938, from noon till midnight: a day in the life of Gabriele d’Annunzio, the greatest exponent of the Italian
Decadent movement. This unusual biography narrates the life of the Poet through his memories and thoughts and the events
of an emblematic day: the first fantasies of childhood, the debut in the art scene, the heroic adventures, his love for many
women (in particular the romance with Olga Levi, retraced here thanks to an unpublished correspondence) and for music (the
fundament of his prose and poetry). On the background, the unsettling, haunting presence of Benito Mussolini, who excluded
him from political life and encaged him in a golden prison, Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, a fabulous mansion on the Garda Lake).
The Poet’s conversations, thoughts and meditations contained in the book are extracted from real D’Annunzio annotations,
letters and documents (some of them previously unpublished) which reveal peculiar aspects of his personality, such as irony
and sarcasm toward Mussolini and himself or the melancholy of an overman in decline.
Graduated in Modern Literature, Paola Sorge wrote essays on many subjects, mainly on Gabriele d’Annunzio but also on
German literature and Italian language. Since 1990, she writes for the cultural pages of «la Repubblica».
Publication Date: February 2013 | 144 pages | World Rights Available
Carlo Sini
WRITING THE SILENCE
Wittgenstein and the Problem of Language
Wittgenstein wrote that philosophical sentences are like pictures or logic images of the state of things that we encounter in the
world; in other words, illustrations of a real and possible world. But the problem is: how they can be illustration? What is the
connection between the word “ship”, the sounds of the voice pronouncing this word, the pen lines of the written word, a
drawing of a ship and the image that we have in our mind?
Taking Wittgenstein’s metaphor seriously, Carlo Sini created a sketchbook which would help him to teach Philosophy of
Language with images and visual diagrams: Writing the silence is a sort of hornbook, an elementary text with the basic
fundamentals of philosophy.
“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence” is the conclusion of the Tractatus logico-philosophicus: the
figurative-logic path of this book explains and enlarges at the same time the meaning of this sentence which could be
reformulated as “What we cannot speak about with words, we must write about”.
Carlo Sini has been teaching Philosophy at the University of Milan for more than thirty years. Member of the Accademia dei
Lincei and other Italian and international cultural associations, he wrote more than forty books and some of them have been
translated in several languages.
Publication Date: January 2013 | 102 pages | World Rights Available
24
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Espedita Fisher
I WILL BE LOVE
The New Ways of Reclusion
With an essay by Anna Maria Cànopi
Espedita Fisher gives voice to nuns revealing the reasons of such a nonconformist and extraordinary
choice.
«Avvenire»
After exploring the world of contemporary reclusion, Espedita Fisher continues her journey through new
encounters, new voices which defend the true meaning of an extreme choice of living.
Common stories of young women which found their road to joy and salvation by giving themselves to
God.
In these confused times, full of uncertainties, a light guides the way walked by the “witnesses of the
Absolute”.
Love is the ultimate goal: love is both source and destination, the truth that leads to God. A path made
of sacrifice and surrender, and, maybe also for this reason, made of a huge freedom.
Espedita Fisher is a journalist. She walked her way through mountains and country lands of Italy in a
four-year journey to gather these extraordinary testimonies. She also wrote Clausura, a collection of
interviews with cloistered nuns (Castelvecchi, 2007).
Publication Date: February 2013
Pages: 128
World Rights Available
25
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Espedita Fisher
HERMITS
An amazing crossover between a pilgrimage
reportage and a picaresque novel.
«L’Avvenire»
In Italy, solitude and asceticism are still a choice. The author describes the lives of men and women far from the cliché of the
misanthropic hermit, and we get to know real dwellers of an inner hermitage.
Swami Atmananda, Ginevra, Miriam, Juri Camisasca are keepers of a way of life which is completely opposed to the frantic
pace of metropolitan life. A fascinating and inspiring journey into silence and the deep meaning of things, in which hermits
open their doors and their hearts and tell their stories for the first time.
Espedita Fisher is a journalist. She walked her way through mountains and country lands of Italy in a four-year journey to gather
these extraordinary testimonies. She also wrote Clausura, a collection of interviews with cloistered nuns (Castelvecchi, 2007).
Publication date: March 2012 | Pages: 272 | World Rights Available
Mario Bertin
FRANCIS
Faithful to historical documents, Bertin particularly
enlightens St. Francis' humanity.
«Famiglia Cristiana»
This book is not a classic biography neither a novel. It’s the tale of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, the story of the spiritual
meeting between the author and this extraordinary human being, whose experience is still a source of reflection, inspiration
and interrogation.
Strictly respecting historical coherence and continually referring to the sources, Bertin narrates the life of Francis, his intense
humanity, his deep compassion, the reasons that let him to take the side of the poor and the oppressed, embracing radical
poverty as the only condition to establish a relation with things denuding them from their current use value and giving them
their original meaning back.
Mario Bertin has been the editorial director of Città Aperta Edizioni. He is author of many books: among the other, And he
decided to call himself Joao (a disturbing reportage about Brazilian meniños de rua) and Psalm.
Publication date: January 2013 | Pages: 187 | World Rights Available
26
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Umberta Telfener
I MARRIED A NARCISSIST
A survival Guide for Women in Love
Men who charm and wound, always more intelligent than average, sensitive, seductive, grandiose, then suddenly
depressed and inadequate.
What does a narcissist want from a woman? In the majority of cases, his only wish is to be helped to Love himself,
love himself, love himself. But, what if one day his woman needs him? This is where the problems begin, because
a narcissist is always trained on the Absolute, caught up in projects that are too big and heroic to allow for doubt
or indecision. Umberta Telfener’s book is witty, fluid and sometimes comical, though it deals with an extremely
serious subject.
This is a true survival guide, because narcissism is impossible to overcome. Your only hope is to come out of it
alive.
Publication Date: October 2007 | Pages: 272 | Rights Sold to Germany (Random House), Brazil (Editoria Record)
and Spain (Arcopress) | More than 40.000 copies sold
HOW TO SAY GOODBYE
The Side Effects of Love
Umberta Telfener deals with various kinds of goodbyes, on the basis of solid clinical and scientific research:
separation as a temporary or a definitive split-up, imposed or inevitable, capricious or necessary. She offers
suggestions, solutions and ways out to break the deadlock you experience when you’ve been left. A book that
helps you to understand how to start over again and regain that irresistible will to go on with your life.
Publication Date: October 2008 | Pages: 320 | World Rights Available
Psychologist and psychotherapist, Umberta Telfener is a professor at the School of Specialization in Psychology of
Health at «La Sapienza» University of Rome. An expert in Systems Theory, she has published several essays on
psychology and epistemology such as Sistemica, voci e percorsi nella complessità (Bollati Boringhieri).
27
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Marika Vecchiattini
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF
PERFUME
Publication Date: August 2012
Pages: 192
World Rights Available
An elegant product made by complicated processes of chemical synthesis, a perfume is more than a mere object of desire.
Behind every essence there’s a man or a woman who wish to give the perfume an “expressive connotation”, a way of
stimulating our senses and fixing memories and feelings we couldn’t tell with words. Marika Vecchiattini recounts the story of
perfume in history, culture and society in order to outline the world of perfumery outside the mere commercial schemes, going
back to its ancestral and artistic meaning.
Marika Vecchiattini has always explored the world through her nose rather than through her eyes. After attending perfumery
classes in France and Italy, she opened the blog bergamottoebenzoino.blogspot.com, one of the 10 most important perfumerelated websites in the world.
Anna Livia Carella
FIRE ON SKIN
The Story and Art of Japanese Tattoo
Publication Date: October 2011
Pages: 256 (including illustrations)
World Rights Available
In Japan the art of tattoo is rooted in ancient history. Tattoos were first intended as marks to show values such as morality and
courage, and for this reason, they were “read” only by those who could interpret the thick net of symbols and meaning
entwined in the ink lines. With the aid of iconographic materials, Anna Livia Carella gives light to the wonders of Japanese tatt
oo, disclosing the deep sense of a very popular practice and explaining to readers and enthusiasts an art which has a very
artistic and cultural value.
Anna Livia Carella was born in 1971, she as a MA in Far Eastern Languages and works as a cultural mediator.
Lorenza Fruci
BURLESQUE
Costumes, Music, Seduction
Publication Date: December 2010
Pages: 256 (including illustrations)
World Rights Available
What’s New Burlesque? What’s its story? Lorenza Fruci’s book recounts the exciting saga of this bizarre art, its rise in the
beginning of XX century and its success in the Nineties, its social and cultural connotations and influences from other arts. The
second coming of burlesque nowadays is analyzed through a new vintage taste, according to fashion and culture in general,
and it’s seen a reaction to pornography, seen as a denigration of feminine dignity. Choreographies, scenography, costumes
and irony come from last century heritage, and are mingled to a new consciousness of the woman’s body and feelings.
Lorenza Fruci is a freelance journalist, writer and columnist. Her areas of interest are culture, trends and eros.
28
NON FICTION - ARCANA
Gary Lucas
TOUCHED BY GRACE
My Music with Jeff Buckley
A literary titbit, a beautiful book, disarmingly sincere.
«Rolling Stone»
An absorbing and compelling story offering us an insight into the short life of a first rate star, but also
into the NY musical scene of the '90s and the record labels world of that time.
«la Repubblica»
Gary Lucas tells the parabole from glory to suicide of late Jeff Buckley, the fallen angel which donated
us Grace.
«La Stampa»
With Grace, Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas shook the music world.
«Il Piccolo»
Jeff Buckley was considered to be the most formidable, brilliant up-and-coming young rock vocalist in the early
‘90s. He was a beautiful boy who seemingly had it all: looks, charisma and a spectacular voice -- both angelic and
demonic -- that melted the hearts of fans and music lovers everywhere. After recording his 1994 album GRACE
which has been hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time by critics and musicians such as Bono and Jimmy
Page, Jeff's career was tragically cut short by a fatal and controversial swim in the treacherous waters of the
Mississippi River in 1997.
Gary Lucas, the acclaimed guitarist and Grammy-nominated songwriter and co-writer of some of Jeff's best known
songs, including "Grace" and "Mojo Pin", has written a book straight from the heart about his lost friend: a loving,
intimate, and no-holds-barred account of working with Jeff Buckley, told from the inside by a key Buckley
collaborator. It vividly depicts how this gifted pair of misfits were mutually attracted to one another, and how they
decided to join forces with a plan to rock the music world to its foundations with their group Gods and Monsters,
how they went on to co-write and record their famous anthems, the shattering trauma when Jeff quits Gary to go
solo just when the band were on the cusp of getting a major label deal, and Jeff and Gary's dramatic and heartfelt
reconciliation live onstage, shortly before Jeff's mysterious and fateful drowning.
An up close and personal glimpse of Jeff and Gary's work process in writing and recording their songs, Touched By
Grace is filled with in-depth descriptions of their trials and tribulations on the road to making it, and loaded with
details and fascinating stories about Jeff Buckley that have never before appeared in print.
The book coincides with a movie coming out about Jeff's early days in NYC, "Greetings from Tim Buckley",
premiered at the Toronto film Festival in September, starring Penn Badgley as Jeff Buckley, and scheduled for
release in Summer 2013. Gary Lucas appears in the movie as a key character and worked as a consultant.
Gary Lucas was born in Syracuse, NY in 1952. Guitarist, Grammy-nominated songwriter, soundtrack composer,
Gary has been described as “one of the best and most original guitarists in America”. Lucas also lectures on guitar
and the music business, and performed in more than 35 countries. Gary's pedigree includes collaborating and
playing with Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart, Bryan Ferry, Leonard Bernstein, Chris Cornell and Noel Gallagher.
Publication date: October 2012 | Pages: 256 | European Rights Available | English Rights sold to Jawbone
29
NON FICTION - ARCANA
Laura Gramuglia
ROCK IN LOVE
From Elvis & Priscilla to Kurt & Courtney, 50
Love Stories to the Sound of Music
Publication Date: April 2012
Pages: 455
Rights Sold to Turkey (Once Kitap)
Stories that deserve to be told. Stories that share a love for the excess, that mingle with music and art, stories of love at first
sight, pain and self-destruction. All of them are passionate, some are lived on the edge, some are brief, some are stories of a
lifetime. Some of them inspired great songs and albums, some inspired misery an d distress. Some o f them have an happy
ending, some end in tragedy. All of them lived to the sound of music. Radio host Laura Gramuglia tells these amazing rock and
love stories in a glossy magazine style without forgetting great accuracy and detail-mindedness.
Laura Gramuglia lives between Milan and Bologna, waiting for a new rock love story to come knocking at her door. Record
collector, music journalist and radio host, she believes green is the new black.
> Paul McCartney & Linda Eastman
> Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson
>
Patti
Smith
&
Robert
Mapplethorpe
> John Lennon & Yoko Ono
> Jimmy Page & Pamela Des Barres
> Ozzy Osbourne & Sharon Levy
> Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen
> Serge Gainsburg & Jane Birkin
> Thom as Mars & Sofia Coppola
> Bono Vox & Alison Stewart
> Sting & Trudie Styler
> Mick Jagger & Marianne Faithfull
> Keith Richards & Anita Pallenberg
> Nick Cave & PJ H arvey
> Amy Winehouse & Blake CivilFielder
> Bob Dylan & Joan Baez
> George Harrison & Pattie Boyd
> Chrissie Hynde & Nick Kent
> Pete Doherty & Kate Moss
> And more…
Patrizio Gonnella & Susanna Marietti
JAILHOUSE ROCK
Music behind bars
Publication date: October 2012
Pages: 272
World Rights Available
From Johnny Cash playing in the Folsom prison to the whole Allman Brothers Band being arrested, from Chet
Backer imprisoned in Lucca to Bon Scott convict in a reform school for stealing some petrol. From Ozzy Osbourne
accused of peeing in the wrong place to the Sex Pistols messing with Queen Elizabeth II. Some of them have lived
among cockroaches, some have been regarded as kings; some have been treated with kid gloves, some have
been tortured and harassed.
100 stories from A to Z, with mug shots, stories of musicians which entered the prison gates, either guilty or not.
Stories from jails all over the world.
Patrizio Gonnella and Susanna Marietti are journalists and founders of Antigone, a political-cultural association
which grants rights to prisoners and runs an observatory on the condition of Italian prisons.
30
NON FICTION - ARCANA
Ezio Guaitamacchi
ROCK FILES
500 stories that make history
Guaitamacchi opened up the archive of his rock
passion and let it travel through time.
«XL – la Repubblica»
What if Elvis would have remained a truck driver? And if the Beatles would have stayed in Hamburg? What if Dylan wouldn’t
have started to play guitar, if Hendrix wouldn’t have left the Army or if Manzarek wouldn’t have convinced Morrison to become
a singer? Rock wouldn’t exist, probably, and our lives would be definitely different. 60 years after the day when a “nice guy with
sideburns” recorded in Memphis a song dedicated to his mother, rock ‘n’ roll is considered as one of the most significant
artistic expression of the XXth Century, an absolutely relevant invention not only musically but also from a socio-cultural point
of view. This book is not an encyclopedia neither a classical history of rock: these are some of the moments that left their mark
in the evolution of this complex and fascinating prodigy that we call rock music and which is, at the same time, an occasion for
young people to networking and being together, an expression of the counter-cultures, a voice of new tendencies and a
commercial trend. From the Fifties until today, 500 facts, episodes and anecdotes: some of them are already legend while
some are known only by the insiders, but all of them unequivocally show, even thanks to their narrative power, how big is the
impact of rock and rock stars on our history and our culture.
Some of the Rock Files stories:
> Little Richard and the first groupies
> When John met Paul
> Save private Presley
> Jimi sets audience on fire
> Bowie: the first time in USA
> Morrison: the last time with the Doors
> Frank Zappa and the jealous fan
> Ziggy retires
> On Kerouac’s grave
> The last flight of the Zeppelin
> Reagan and the Boss
> Tom Waits and chips
> Jarvis vs. Jacko
> The Pope and the Profet
Publication date: November 2012 | Pages: 550 | World Rights Available
ROCK CRIMES
From Robert Johnson to Whitney Houston:
200 Crime Scene Examinations
A Spoon River of Rock
«Il Sole 24 Ore»
Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison: in two years time, four huge rock stars whose music changed the world,
die in obscure circumstances. They all had a J in their names. They all were 27 years old. This is not, though, the only mystery
in rock history. Along with Brian, Jimi, Janis and Jim, plenty of luminous stars have lost their young lives by accidents,ODs,
violent acts , and homicides. From Elvis to Cobain, from Marvin Gaye to Jeff Buckley, dozens of rock crimes are still unsolved
.Forty years after Hendrix and Joplin ’s death ,thirty years after Lennon’s homicide, this accurate and sharp document includes
the most shocking events and the most difficult stories, in an attempt to throw light on the mysteries bound to some of the
most influential icons of XX century.
Publication Date: April 2010 | Pages: 455 | World Rights Available | More than 20.000 copies sold
Ezio Guaitamacchi is a journalist, writer, musician and radio host, founder of «Jam» magazine. He interviewed more than 1.000
rock stars, but he has never killed one. So far.
31
NON FICTION - ARCANA
Andrea Morandi
U2
The Name of Love. Commented Lyrics
U2 as you’ve never read about: in a precious and elegant volume, a screenplay for words and images,
set in the places and themes of a band which is now considered legendary. Andrea Morandi organizes
his work as a movie about four Irish boys leaving Dublin to conquer the world. The result is a new and
deep reflection on their lyrics, with all you can find in the backstage of more than 150 songs: politics,
the Bible, love, philosophy, cinema.
The author studies each album discovering Irish roots and American icons.
Andrea Morandi, music critic and professional journalist, is a regular contributor to «Rockstar» and
«Repubblica» and «Ciak».
Publication Date: November 2009
Pages: 650
Rights Sold to Poland (Replica)
More than 20.000 copies sold
32
NON FICTION - ARCANA
COMMENTED LYRICS TXT
Sex Pistols. No future – Giuliano Santoro
Muse. Love is our resistance – Emanuele Binelli Mantelli
R.E.M. Perfect circle – Claudio Fabretti
Black Sabbath. Neon Knights – Eduardo Vitolo
Springsteen. Spare parts (1973-2012) – Ermanno Labianca
Ramones. Cretin hop – Pablo Echaurren
Lou Reed. Rock and Roll – Paolo Bassotti
U2. The name of love – Andrea Morandi
The Beatles. Hey! Hey! Hey! (1967-1970) – Massimo Padalino
The Beatles. Hey! Hey! Hey! (1962-1966) – Massimo Padalino
The Police & Sting. Shape of my heart – Antonio Pollastri
Depeche Mode. Touch faith – Antonio Puglia
The Who. Pure and easy – Eleonora Bagarotti
Frank Zappa. For president! – Michele Pizzi
Patti Smith – Claudia Bonadonna
Coldplay. Life is for living – Corrado Minervini
Oasis. Be myself – Hamilton Santià
Nick Cave. And the devil saw the angel – Luca Moccafighe
Metallica. Inferno – Stefano Scalich
Howlin’ Wolf. I’m the wolf – Luigi Monge
Led Zeppelin. Dazed and confused – Claudio Mapelli
Guns n’Roses. Fuckin’g crazy – Antonio Aramini
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Erotic nightmare – Aldo Fresia
Madonna. Heaven – Claudia Bonadonna
Genesis. Once upon a time – Giovanni De Liso
Radiohead. A kid – Gianfranco Franchi
Doors – Aurelio Pasini
Springsteen. Talk about a dream (1973-1988) – Ermanno Labianca
Joy Division. Broken heart romance – Marco Di Marco
Nirvana. Kill your friends – Andrea Prevignano, Gianluca Polverari
The Cure. The edge of the world – Daniela Cascella
Eminem. Fuck it, let’s all stand up – Damir Ivic
Jeff Buckley. Dark Angel – Giulio Casale, Luca Moccafighe
Janis Joplin. Cry Baby – Massimo Cotto
Nick Drake. Journey to the Stars – Paola De Angelis
Robert. I got the blues – Luigi Monge
Pink Floyd. The Lunatic – Alessandro Besselva Averame
The Clash. I wanna riot – Luca Frazzi
Johnny Clash. The Man in Black – Valter Binaghi, Francesco Binaghi
33
NON FICTION - CASTELVECCHI
Laura Scarpa
HUGO PRATT – THE LOST LESSONS
Introduction by Vincenzo Mollica
Preface by Ferruccio Giromini
Pratt’s unpublished lessons from his teaching period at the Escuela Panamericana de Arte in the Fifties.
A comics handbook by an excellent teacher: Hugo Pratt. Thanks to the recent recovery of the lecture notes from
the Escuela Panamericana De Arte, where Pratt taught at the beginning of the Fifties, it was possible to retrace the
teaching experience of one of the greatest cartoonist of all times.
Next to the didactic iconographic material, we find memories of Pratt’s colleagues, students which have ecome
famous cartoonists and great authors inspired by his work: Ongaro, Pavone, Fenzo, Muñoz, Fuga, Vianello,
Manara, Stano and Bacilieri, which all provided unpublished material.
This book evidences methods and tools, inspirations and experiences lived by Pratt and it reveals also his
relations with book industry, his ethic and philosophy of the work, the importance of an artist which, during fifty
years of activity, revolutionized the history of comics.
Laura Scarpa (Venice, 1957) is a cartoonist, editor and comics teacher. She met Hugo Pratt in 1972 in Venice,
where he gave her encouragement about her first works.
She published stories for children and adults in many magazines and revues and, as illustrator, she worked with
many publishers. She created and directed «Animals», one of the leading Italian comics reviews.
She has been teaching comics for twenty years and in 2001 she founded the specialized review «Comics School».
Her last illustrated publication is Coffee for Breakfast (Caffè a colazione, from the tlumblelog with the same name
http://caffeacolazione.tumblr.com/).
Publication date: October 2012
Pages: 226 – illustrated
Rights sold to Spain (Gallo Nero)
34
NON FICTION - ORME
Mariella Bussolati
COMMUNITY GARDENS
From Balconies to Shared Spaces, How to
Change Cities by Planting Vegetables
Publication Date: May 2012 | Pages: 160
Urban agriculture is a new, rapidly spreading phenomenon, but it’s also an urgency deeply rooted in human nature, as men
always tried to find spaces to grow their own food. Community gardens are popping out on balconies, terraces, abandoned
land, parks, old buildings. In this book/manifesto, the author describes the origins of this phenomenon, and guides us on a
tour of a community which is trying to give our cities a new shape, discovering a new way to growing vegetables and managing
common spaces. This helpful and entertaining book also includes a guide to start your own garden with tips for plant care.
Mariella Bussolati, with a degree in Agricultural Science and a PhD in Herbal Medicine, worked for Focus magazine as a regular
contributor for more than twenty years. In 2010 she founded Libere Rape Metropolitane, a network of community gardens in
Milan.
Bruno Contigiani
SLOW LIVING
Small Action for Great Changes
Publication Date: December 2008 | Pages: 128
Rights sold to Spain (Plataforma) | 50.000 copies sold
Slow living is a serious and playful invitation to take your time to the detriment of today’s frenetic lifestyle, to which all people
seem to conform. Small actions for great change are what allow us to see a world perceptible only in slow motion.
Head of the Press Office of IBM Italy, Telecom Corporation Italy and Telecom Project Italy as well as stressed-out manager of a
multinational, Bruno Contigiani decided to change his life and founded «L’arte del Vivere con lentezza» Association (The Art of
Slow Living Association) and organized the first International Slow Day (stopping in New York, Rome, Milan and soon Tokyo). On
this occasion, he stood in Union Square and gave out fines to hurried passerbies, entertaining them with ironic and profound
musings on their relationship with time, anxiety, frenzy and quality of life. For more information about the Slow Living
movement, visit www.vivereconlentezza.it.
Francesca Povoledo and
Anna Maria Di Scipio
OH MY GOD, IT’S DINNER TIME!
Publication Date: November 2011 | Pages: 192
World Rights Available | English manuscript available
Francesca is a very skilled woman, but please don’t ask her to cook. She doesn’t know how to use kitchenware, and she’s not
going to learn. She doesn’t even buy cookbooks, she wouldn’t open them. In this book Francesca explain the pains of finding
yourself into a kitchen without any clues.
This is a survival manual: how to prepare a menu, hot to make a shopping list, how to recognize vegetables at the market, and
how to transform a few ingredients in about sixty recipes. All recipes are simple and nutritionally complete, with a little AngloAmerican touch.
Francesca Povoledo was born in the North of Italy, but she was raised in Winnipeg, Canada. She worked as a translator and
English language teacher. She lives in Rome.
35
NON FICTION
OTHER TITLES
Gillo Dorfles Irritations | Publication Date: November 2011 | Pages 192
An Analysis of Contemporary Moral Issues.
Gillo Dorfles Facts and Factoids | Publication Date: October 2009 | Pages 160 | Rights sold to Spain (Sequitur)
An Analysis of fictions, falsifications, and adulterations of our mass-medialized, virtualized age.
Gillo Dorfles Conformists | Publication Date: October 2008 | Pages 128
There is a ghost wandering Europe, said Marx. And the ghost was communism. There is a vice among us, Dorfles
says. And this vice is conformism.
Gillo Dorfles Horror Pleni | Publication Date: March 2008 | Pages 240
Are we able to maintain any kind of awareness in our daily Horror Pleni?
Luther Blisset Mind Invaders | Publication Date: January 2005 | Pages 160
How to fuck the Media: a manual of cultural guerrilla and sabotage.
Corrado De Rosa The Camorra Doctors | Publication Date: February 2011 | Pages 288
How to use psychiatry to cancel crime.
Carlo Ruta Narcoeconomics | Publication Date: June 2011 | Pages 192
Drug dealing organizations in modern Economics.
Antonella Appiano Damascus Undercover | Publication Date: November 2011 | Pages 192
Four months in forbidden Syria on the verge of Revolution.
Paola De Angelis, Andrea Tantucci Rockitchen | Publication Date: November 2009 | Pages 272
Thirty menus for thirty legendary rock albums.
Donato Zoppo Prog | Publication Date: November 2011 | Pages 384
A fifty-year long suite.
36