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In Tuscany
Mayes, Frances
Broadway Books
2000
The more you know, the more you love, and by loving more, the more you enjoy.
Mayes has chosen this saying as the opening words of her luscious book In Tuscany. She continues to learn about the treasures of Tuscany, her second home, and continues to write about them. While this book has an interesting, formative text, it is the photographs that make it an exceptionally delightful book. And then again, perhaps the photos seem so special because Mayes explains them so well in her poetic text.
This coffee-table-like book is divided into seven parts: Baci (Kisses), La Piazza, La Festa (Celebration), Il Campo (The Field), La Cucina (The Cuisine), La Bellezza (Beauty), and Dove (Where). It touches on every vital aspect of Tuscan life but it is clear that what is at the heart of life in Tuscany is food. Mayes focuses on the culinary delights, explores the Tuscan character and attempts to explain to her reader who the Tuscans really are.
This book will enchant you. You will want to jump on the next plane for Italy and head for Cortona to discover the joys of this town and its surrounding area that Mayes extols so lyrically. Available from amazon.com
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany
Salsini, Paul
iUniverse
2006.
See English review below
Questo libro è scritto in modo tale che ti incoraggia a leggerlo pagina dopo pagina senza smettere. La vicenda, pur nella sua forma di romanzo, si svolge su un piano realistico, a volte crudo, a volte entusiasmante, a volte sentimentale. Essendo italiano, ho assaporato ogni parola, ogni avvenimento, ogni individuo, ogni azione, gustandone la veridicità fino all’ultima pagina.
Il libro tratta del periodo di occupazione tedesca di un villaggio della Toscana. Le peripezie degli abitanti di questo villaggio nel vivere da vicino, da sfollati nella fattoria Il Cielo, le tragedie che si verificavano ad opera dei tedeschi e dei fascisti nei villaggi vicini, compresa l’uccisione del prete del villaggio che era in contatto via radio con le forze alleate e l’eccidio perpetrato dalle SS tedesche nel villaggio di Sant’Anna di Stazzema dove vecchie donne e bambini vennero trucidati senza una ragione plausibile.
Questo romanzo, pure essendo circoscritto nei limiti di qualche villaggio del nord della Toscana, é una viva testimonianza di quanto accadeva in tutta l’Italia occupata nel periodo dal settembre 1943 all’aprile del 1945 quando il conflitto in Italia ebbe termine con la resa dei tedeschi in quel settore di guerra.
- Suggerito da Andrea Meloni
ENGLISH
This book is written in such a way that it encourages you to read it page after page without stopping. The plot, although it is in the form of a novel, takes place on a realistic plane, sometimes crude, sometimes enthusiastic, at times sentimental. Being Italian, I relished every word, every event, every individual, every action, appreciating the truth of it all up to the final page.
The book deals with the period of the German occupation of a village in Tuscany. It chronicles the doings of the residents of this village who were forced to go to a nearby farm, Il Cielo, and who lived close to the tragedies that were taking place at the hands of the Germans and the Fascists in the nearby villages, including the killing of the priest of the village who was in contact via radio with the Allied Forces and the massacre carried out by the German SS in the village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema where old women and children were cut down without a plausible reason.
This novel, although it is limited to one village in the north of Tuscany, is the real testimony of what happened throughout Italy from the time the country was occupied from September 1943 to April 1945 until the end when the Germans surrendered in that area of the war.
Go to the Speaker's Corner to read an interview with an Italian who was a child in Fascist Italy.
- Recommended by Andrea Meloni
Testimone inconsapevole
Gianrico Carofiglio
Sellerio Editore: Palermo
2007 (33rd printing)
Testimone inconsapevole is the first narrative work of Judge Gianrico Carofiglio. The reader enters the mind of a lawyer who has taken on the defense of a Senegalese immigrant accused of killing a nine-year-old boy. The lawyer is abandoned by his wife shortly before he accepts the case. One watches as he struggles to adapt to his new domestic reality and, at the same time, to come to terms with his jaded attitude toward his work. In the end he is a very different person.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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Napoli siamo noi: Il dramma di una città nell’indifferenza dell’Italia
Bocca, Giorgio
2006 -
Feltrinelli
See English review below
Giorgio Bocca è uno dei più altamente rispettati giornalisti oggi, in Italia. In questo libro egli tratta un difficile e pericoloso soggetto, la camorra napoletana. Mentre la Sicilia ha la Mafia e la Calabria la ndranghetta, Napoli ha la Camorra. Il Bocca offre un analisi approfondita di come la Camorra opera ed influenza quasi tutte le attività della vita della città di Napoli. Il paragrafo seguente riassume la situazione:
Napoli, come dice il suo sindaco, non é tutta camorra, ma la camorra vi é padrona e la societá napoletana é un’inestricabile commistione di camorristi effettivi, di complemento, per necessitá, per convenienza, per rassegnazione (p. 45).
Bocca intervista Maione, avvocato e propietario di uno dei miglior alberghi di Napoli. Maione pensa che i napoletani meriterebbero una vita migliore. Lui crede che "questa umanitá ricca di doni e di bellezza, di intelligenza e di generositá dovrá pure liberarsi un giorno dalle sue cicliche disperazioni"(p. 64).
Bocca esprime il suo rammarico che una città come Napoli con le sue grandi bellezze naturali, debba lottare contro la criminalità, la corruzzione e la paura che la camorra infligge sui suoi cittadini. Ernesto Merola dice: "Vuoi vivere tra mille cose belle? Sopporta il rischio. " (p. 36). Il vincitore del premio Nobel, Dario Fo, comunque, non è d’accordo che una persona debba accettare la situazione con rassegnazione. Lui incita i napoletani all’azione. Lui urla "ribellatevi" (p. 36). Ma come tutti sanno, ribellarsi contro la camorra non è cosa facile.
- Raccomandato da Christine F. Meloni, Culture Club Editor
ENGLISH
Giorgio Bocca is one of the most highly respected journalists in Italy today. In this book he takes on a difficult – and dangerous – subject, the Neapolitan Camorra. While Sicily has the Mafia and Calabria the ‘Ndrangheda, Naples has the Camorra. Bocca provides an in-depth account of the workings and influence of the Camorra in almost all areas of the life of the city of Naples. The following sentence sums up the situation:
Napoli, come dice il suo sindaco, non é tutta camorra, ma la camorra vi é padrona e la societá napoletana é un’inestricabile commistione di camorristi effettivi, di complemento, per necessitá, per convenienza, per rassegnazione (p. 45).
Bocca interviews Maione, an attorney and the owner of one of Naples’ best hotels. Maione feels that the Neapolitans deserve a better life. He believes that "questa umanitá ricca di doni e di bellezza, di intelligenza e di generositá dovrá pure liberarsi un giorno dalle sue cicliche disperazioni"(p. 64).
Bocca expresses his great sorrow that a city as blessed as Naples is with great natural beauty must struggle against the crime, corruption, and fear that the Camorra inflicts on its citizens. Ernesto Merola says, "Vuoi vivere tra mille cose belle? Sopporta il rischio. " (p. 36). Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, however, does not agree that one should accept the situation with resignation. He incites the Neapolitans to action. "Ribellatevi," he shouts (p. 36). As everyone knows, rebelling against the Camorra is no easy task.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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Matrioška
Comencini, Cristina
Feltrinelli Editore Milano
2002
Available from http://www.feltrinelli.it
See English Review below
Antonia è una scultrice famosa che sa di essere malata e di non aver molto tempo da vivere. Assume una giovane donna biografa per scrivere la sua vita. Gradualmente le vite di queste due donne si incrocciano fino a che le loro identitá individuali non sono più ben separate. Il titolo è molto adatto in quanto, leggendo il libro, continuiamo a scoprire gli strati della esistenza di queste due donne e, come le bambole russe (Matrioška), troviamo sempre nuove caratteristiche e molte sorprese.
English
Antonia is a famous sculptor who is ill and realizes that she doesn’t have long to live. She hires a young woman biographer to write her life story. Gradually the lives of these two women become intertwined until their individual identities become blurred. The title is very apt in that, throughout the book, we continue to peel away the layers of existence from these two women and, as with the Russian dolls, we find new characteristics and many surprises.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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L’Ultima Lacrima
Benni, Stefano
Feltrinelli Editore Milano
14th edition April 2006
Available from http://www.feltrinelli.it
See English Review below
Questo libro è bizzarro. Nessuno scrive come Benni. E’ originale e quasi indescrivibile. L’Ultima Lacrima è un insieme di ventisette racconti di diversa lunghezza ma molti sono brevi. Egli scrive su vari soggetti – un Bancomat che agisce come un essere umano, un illustre tenore che rende la vita impossibile alle persone intorno a lui, un negozio di libri usati con volumi incantati, e un grande sasso che cade dal cielo. Ogni racconto è divertente in un modo bizzarro.
English
This book is bizarre. No one writes like Benni. He is unique and almost indescribable.
L’Ultima Lacrima is a collection of 27 short stories of varying length but most quite short. He writes on a variety of topics - an ATM machine that acts human, an illustrious tenor who makes life impossible for those around him, a used book store with magical books, and a huge rock that falls from the sky. Each story is amusing in a bizarre way.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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Il Cappotto del Turco
Comencini, Cristina
Feltrinelli, 2006
See English Review below
Comencini è nota come regista, seguendo la carriera del padre Luigi Comencini. I suoi lavori cinematografici comprendono: Zoo, La fine é nota, Matrimoni, e La bestia nel cuore. E’ anche una scrittrice stimata, ed Il Cappotto del Turco è il suo terzo e più recente romanzo.
In questo romanzo Comencini segue le vite di due sorelle, Maria Isabella e Isabella Maria, che hanno modi molto diversi di vedere il mondo. Nate in una famiglia dell’alta borghesia a Roma negli anni ‘50, hanno avuto un’infanzia tranquilla e protetta. Poi arrivono gli anni della politica radicale, e anche se tutte e due vi partecipono attivamente, Maria affonda le radici nella società mentre Isabella diviene nomade. Ad un certo punto arriva a casa di Maria un esotico turco mandato dalla sorella Isabella. Maria e suo figlio lo trovano affascinante, ma dopo un po’, egli sparisce, lasciando il suo cappotto. Nel romanzo egli è simbolicamente un personaggio centrale. La Comencini crea molti personaggi indimenticabili e illumina la vita italiana nella seconda metà del ventunesimo secolo.
English Review
Comencini is well known as a film director, following in the footsteps of her father Luigi Comencini. Her cinematic works include Zoo, La fine é nota, Matrimoni, and La bestia nel cuore. She is also a respected novelist, and Il Cappotto del Turco is her third and most recent novel.
In this novel Comencini follows the lives of two sisters, Maria Isabella and Isabella Maria, who have very different ways of looking at the world. They were born into an upper middle class family in Rome in the 1950s and shared a tranquil and sheltered childhood. Then came the radical political years, and, although they both participated actively, Maria put down roots while Isabella became a wanderer. At a certain point an exotic Turk arrives at Maria’s house having been sent by Isabella. He fascinates Maria and her son but, after a while, he disappears, leaving behind his overcoat. He is symbolically a pivotal figure in the story. In addition to creating several unforgettable characters, Comencini gives insights into life in Italy in the second half of the 20th century.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
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Novecento (1900)
Baricco, Alessandro
Una passeggera partorisce un bambino su un transatlantico e poi sbarca senza di lui. Siccome il bambino non ha una carta di riconoscimento non gli è permesso di scendere in nessun porto. I marinai prendono la responsabilitá di farlo crescere e lo chiamano Novecento per l’anno in cui è nato. Questo romanza narra la bizzarra storia della vita di Novecento sulla nave e di come diventa famoso quale pianista a bordo. Il film dallo stesso titolo si può trovare in qualche negozio di video con sottotitoli in inglese.
- Suggerito da Christine Foster Meloni, Culture Club Editor
English Review
A passenger gives birth to a baby boy on an ocean liner, and debarks without him. Since the boy had no papers of identification, he is not allowed to go ashore into any of the port cities. The crew takes over the responsibility of raising him and gives him the name 1900, the year of his birth. This novel tells the bizarre and intriguing story of 1900's life aboard ship and how he gains fame as the ship’s pianist. A film by the same title is available at some video stores; with English subtitles.
- Recommended by Christine Meloni
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La Pazienza del Ragno
Camilleri, Andrea (2004)
Italian novelist Camilleri certainly deserves a place among the greatest mystery writers. His novels are as exciting and ingenious as those of English Agatha Christie and Belgian Georges Simenon. His protagonist Montalbano is every bit as memorable as Hercules Poiret and Maigret.
In this recent novel Montalbano is confronted with the kidnapping of a young university student in broad daylight but on a deserted country road. A ransom demand soon follows but why has this family, known to have fallen on hard times, been singled out? Is it because of a wealthy but unpopular uncle? Lots of reasons and a number of suspects come to mind and the conclusion is as satisfying as it is surprising.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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Il Cane di Terracotta (The Terracotta Dog)
Camilleri, Andrea
The Mafia committed a crime in a small Sicilian town 50 years ago. Police Chief Montalbano, a Sicilian by birth, is able to solve this cold case by considering some symbols found at the crime scene that represent symbols that have been transmitted through Sicilian culture for centuries and by evoking memories from several villagers who had lived through the stormy period of war and destruction and had information that they didn’t know was crucial to the case.
- Recommended by Andrea Marcello Meloni
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Volevo i Pantaloni (I Wanted Pants)
Cardella, Lara
Volevo i Pantaloni provides the reader with a perspective of Italian culture through the eyes of a precocious young woman growing up in a provincial town in Sicily. The story follows the struggle of a Sicilian woman, attempting to assert her independence and fighting for gender equality in a world that is hesitant to accommodate the demands of this non-conformist. I thoroughly enjoyed the social commentary in this tale of a young woman's journey of personal discovery in a not-so-accepting male dominated society.
-Recommended by Isabella Rossi
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Io Speriamo Che Me La Cavo (Me, Let’s Hope I Make It)
D’Orta, Marcello
An elementary school teacher, is a collection of some of his third graders’ essays. These children live in a small town near Naples, and most of them come from desperately poor families. Their personal stories of survival will tug at your heartstrings and make you cry and, at times, laugh. The reader is made aware of the serious economic problems that still exist in southern Italy and of the tragic impact of these problems on the children. The well-known film director Lina Wertmuller was tremendously moved by this book and directed a film based on it entitled "Ciao, Professore."
- Recommended by Christine Meloni
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Mi ricordo, sì, io mi ricordo
Mastroianni, Marcello
In this book, the legendary Italian film star Marcello Mastroianni remembers special moments in his professional and personal life that his fans and anyone interested in the world of European cinema will find fascinating. This memoir is actually the transcript of an interview Mastroianni gave to his long-time companion Portuguese film director Anna Maria Tatò. He touches on many subjects, including his passion for work (he acted in more than 170 films), the films he is especially proud of, special people in his life (e.g. the great director Federico Fellini and his brother Ruggero), literary figures who have inspired him (e.g. Kafka and Proust), Hollywood, and a wide variety of other subjects. An enjoyable read.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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La Variante di Luneberg (The Luneberg Variation)
Maurensig, Paolo (2002)
In the opening scene, a famous chess critic is found dead in his opulent mansion. Was it suicide, murder, or an accident? The author suddenly flashes back to the evening before. In the compartment of a train a young man holds two chess enthusiasts spellbound as he spins a complex tale about the game of chess and the game of life. There is then another flashback to the mentor of the young man who tells the chilling story of a battle on a chess board between a young Jew and a Nazi officer. The results of their games have horrifying consequences. In the stories of the two men the line between chess pieces and human beings becomes blurred. But the theme is always clear: violence.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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Il Cielo Cade (The Sky Falls) (1993, 2000)
Mazzetti, Lorenza
In this very moving memoir, Mazzetti tells how she lost her parents at an early age and went to live with her aunt Nina who was married to Robert Einstein, cousin of Albert. She describes, in her own voice as a child, her life with the Einsteins in the early 1940s. Mussolini was then in power and Italy was allied with Hitler’s Germany. Since Robert was Jewish, many of his friends urged him to leave Italy as the persecution of the Jews increased. He refused, and Mazzetti tells the tragic consequences of his decision on all of their lives.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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Vita di Moravia (Life of Moravia) (1990)
Moravia, Alberto & Alain Elkann
Few would disagree that Alberto Moravia was one of the most influential, if not the most influential, Italian writers of the 20th century. Anyone interested in Italian literature will find this book about his life fascinating. This book is in the form of an interview with Moravia’s friend Alain Elkann as his interviewer. Although Moravia was born into a well-to-do family, he had a difficult childhood because of a very severe illness which left him completely bedridden for five years. At the age of 21 he published his first novel Gli Indifferenti which was immediately a resounding success. He became an important figure in literary circles. As an anti-Fascist, he had a difficult time during World War II. He continued to write and travel extensively until his death in 1990.
The reader learns a great deal not only about the life of one Italian writer but about the lives and works of numerous important world literary figures. One also learns a lot about Italian history and politics.
The book is available both in the original Italian and in an English translation from Amazon.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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Tristano Muore (Tristano Dies) (2004)
Tabucchi, Antonio
Tristano is dying in his Tuscan villa in the last August of the 20th century. He has called a young writer to his bedside. He wants the young man to be his witness and to tell the world his story. He attempts to relate "the facts" of his life (he is at times lucid, at times under the effects of morphine) so that the reader can determine whether he was a hero or a traitor when he killed a group of German soldiers in Greece on September 8, 1943. As usual Tabucchi keeps his readers guessing as he poses questions that are never answered and introduces characters whose identity is initially unclear because they have multiple names and appear in a variety of locations. Tristano refers to events in World War II to the terrorist activity in Italy in the 70s and back to the 40s and ahead to the 90s. Throughout the novel we hear Tristano implicitly asking himself whether his life has been worth living. He was a youth filled with idealism and hope, but his participation in the war and his observance of subsequent shocking violent events turned him into a bitter, disillusioned man.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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Un Matrimonio di Provincia (A Small-Town Marriage) (1885)
Torriani-Torelli, Maria Antonietta
Dena Dellara, who dreams of escaping her dreary existence and marrying up into the local aristocracy, is frustrated by both her ever-practical family and her own foolishness. When her widowed father decides to remarry, Denza experiences a change of situation and begins to imagine a possible marriage to wealthy Onorato Mazzucchetto based on the exchange of stolen glances at the opera. Without dowry and starving for affection, Daza will fall victim to the harsh economic realities of her times and will marry a solid and uninspiring rice grower and not her elephantine Prince Charming. Some commentators read this novel as a philippic against marriage, yet it is not marriage per se that is criticized, but rather the social conventions that required a woman to sacrifice her personal aspirations in the name of perpetuating a stable social order.
- Recommended by Magda Ferretti
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Senza Patrizio (2004)
Veltroni, Walter
This intriguing little book was written by the current mayor of Rome , Walter Veltroni. The idea for this book came to him while he was strolling around the city of Buenos Aires . He happened to see the following words scrawled on a wall: “Patricio, Te Amo. Papá” (“Patricio, I love you. Dad.”) He was struck by this unusual message and began to try to imagine the circumstances in which they had been written. In this book he offers five possible scenarios, all closely tied to cultural aspects of the nation of Argentina.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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L'Altro Islam: Un Viaggio nella Terra degli Sciiti
Gruber, Lilli 2004
Milan, Italy: Rizzoli
See English Review below
Nota giornalista italiana Lilli Gruber é andata nel Medio Oriente nella primavera del 2004 per scoprire le risposte alle seguenti domande: Chi sono i veri sciiti? E’ necessario aver paura del loro zelo religioso e della loro rabbia? Quali sono i piani dei religiosi che danno gli ordini? Per trovare le risposte Gruber ha girato in Iraq, Iran, e Libano, parlando con capi religiosi e altri sciiti. In questo libro lei condivide con i suoi lettori quello che ha imparato. Attualmente Gruber é una deputata eletta al governo della Unione Europea.
- Suggerito da Christine Foster Meloni, Editrice Culture Club
The Other Islam: A Journey into the Land of the Shiites
Gruber, Lilli 2004
Milan, Italy: Rizzoli
Well-known Italian journalist Lilli Gruber went to the Middle East in the spring of 2004 to find the answers to the following questions: Who are the real Shiites? Should we be afraid of their religious fervor and of their anger? What are the plans of the religious men who give them orders? To find the answers Gruber traveled around Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon, talking to religious leaders and other Shiites. In this book she shares with her readers what she learned. Gruber is currently an elected deputy in the government of the European Union.
- Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
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