Rarefied and surreal atmospheres are the background to these stories. Following the light and ironic touch that distinguishes Dario Franceschini’s writing, we end up meeting dazed men in front of the vastness of the sea, we get lost in the fog that surrounds the Po valley, we find memories and far away loves, we see the stories with the eyes of the protagonists.
Perhaps, the author tells us, it is precisely in the simplest things in life that happiness is hidden.
“He had not found the inspiration to write in years. He was distracted by too many things in life, he got lost observing them while what he needed was emptiness, a lot of emptiness, to be able to see his thoughts. So when his friend, in his garden in Bogotà, had talked to him about Za and that land beyond the ocean, where everything is prodigious and normal, Paco had immediately decided to leave. You’ll see that there, Gabriel had added, you won’t have to make up stories. They will buzz around you like mosquitoes.”
Dario Franceschini
Dario Franceschini was born in Ferrara. He was a deputy secretary of the Democratic Party in 2007, its secretary from February to October of 2009, and the president of the Democratic Party parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies from 2009 to 2013. He is the Minister for Culture and Tourism. He made his debut in fiction in 2006 with Nelle vene quell’acqua d’argento, winner of the Premio opera prima città di Penne and of the Premio Bacchelli. Published in France by Gallimard in 2008, the book has received great praise from critics and was awarded the Premier Roman de Chambéry. He published La follia imprevista di Ignazio Rando (2007), the essay In 10 parole. Sfidare la destra sui valori (2009), Daccapo (2011), which was also translated and published by Gallimard, Mestieri immateriali di Sebastiano Delgado (2013), Disadorna e altre storie (2017) also published by Gallimard in 2021. His most recent book is Con la cultura non si mangia? (2022).
- Italy
La nave di Teseo
Disadorna
- France
Gallimard
Dépouillée
Foreign publishers of Dario Franceschini’s works
France: Gallimard