“No battles are lost as long as there are still books like those written by Melania Mazzucco.”
El País
“Melania Mazzucco writes with epical strenght and great levity, drowing facts and characters with care, irony and emotional involvement.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
A woman tries to restart her life. A policeman is unable to accept the end of his marriage, obsessed by the memory of his wife, his children and his family. Their two kids are confused and sought after. A guy, age twenty, dreams a different world, and a senator, on the wane, the policeman works for as escort, is too busy to see that his family is falling apart as well. And all around Rome, from the suburbs to the centre of politic power, and work, school, dreams…the whole life in a day.
A choral novel to read in one swallow, a social fresco, ironic and pitiful, a group photo of a nation, a day that only apparently is like another in whatever big city. A total immersion in the reality around us.
This is a story of love and disenchantment, a first page crime news. But most of all, the anatomy of a family: girls and children, men and women, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters – scenes from a marriage in which we all, for better or for worse, can recognize ourselves.
Un giorno perfetto is a movie directed by Ferzan Özpetek in 2008.
Melania Mazzucco
Melania G. Mazzucco was born and lives in Rome. She is the author of Il bacio della Medusa (1996, 2022), La camera di Baltus (1998), Lei così amata (2000, Premio Napoli), about the writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Vita (2003, Premio Strega), Un giorno perfetto (2005), on which was based the movie with the same title by Ferzan Ozpetek, and two works about the Italian Renaissance painter Tintoretto: the novel La lunga attesa dell’angelo (2008, Premio Bagutta) and the essay Jacomo Tintoretto e i suoi figli (2009, Premio Comisso). In 2011 she received the Premio letterario Viareggio-Tobino as Author of the Year. Then, she wrote Limbo (2012, Premio Elsa Morante, Premio Rhegium Julii, Premio Matteotti, Premio Bottari Lattes Grinzane), Il bassotto e la Regina (2012, Premio Frignano Ragazzi 2013), Sei come sei (2013), Il museo del mondo (2014), in which she narrates 54 works of art, Io sono con te (2016, Rai Radio 3 Fahrenheit‘s Book of the Year), L’architettrice (2019, Premio Alassio, Premio Capalbio, Premio Alassio “Un autore per l’Europa”, Premio Dessì, Premio Corrado Alvaro e Libero Bigiaretti, Premio Io Donna, Premio Stresa, Premio Mastercard, Premio Manzoni, Premio Righetto, Premio Friuli Venezia Giulia), Self portrait. Il museo del mondo delle donne (2022). In 2020 she won the Premio alla Carriera John Fante. In 2021 she received Premio regione Friuli Venezia Giulia with the long story Fuoco infinito. She created and wrote the docu-film Tintoretto. A Rebel in Venice, a 2019 Sky Arts original production distributed in cinemas all over the world. She wrote for the theatre, the cinema and the radio and is a contributor to la Repubblica. She’s among the authors of the anthology Ferite (2021). Her books have been translated in 28 countries.
Download here Melania Mazzucco’s rights catalogue
- Self-Portrait. Il museo del mondo delle donne. (Self-Portrait. The Museum of the World of Women)
- Il bacio della medusa (Medusa’s Kiss)
- Fuoco infinito (Infinite fire)
- L’architettrice
- Io sono con te (I’m With You)
- Il museo del mondo (The Museum of the World)
- Sei come sei (You Are How You Are)
- Il bassotto e la regina (Plato and the Queen)
- Limbo
- La lunga attesa dell’angelo (The Long Wait for the Angel)
- Jacomo Tintoretto e i suoi figli (Jacomo Tintoretto and his Daughter Marietta)
- Un giorno perfetto (A Perfect Day)
- Vita
- Lei così amata (She So Loved)
Movie Trailer
“No battles are lost as long as there are still books like those written by Melania Mazzucco.”
El País
“Melania Mazzucco writes with epical strenght and great levity, drowing facts and characters with care, irony and emotional involvement.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Mazzucco and her magistral style are able to generate interest with every single word, and to shape a whole reality, that is chaotic, shifty, unknown.”
El Mundo
Foreign rights sold in
Finland: Avain
France: Flammarion, J’ai lu
Greece: Modern Times
Hungary: Európa Könyvkiadó
Israel: Kinneret
Korea: Random House Corea
Poland: Wab-Foksal
Romania: Polirom
Serbia: Mono j Manjana
Spain: Anagrama
The Netherlands and Belgium: Mouria
Turkey: Doğan Kitap
Italian and international editions
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- Italy (Rizzoli) – Un giorno perfetto
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- Italy (Einaudi Super ET) – Un giorno perfetto
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- Finland (Avain) – Täydellinen päivä
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- Francia (Flammarion) – Un jour parfait
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- Francia (J’ai lu) – Un jour parfait
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- Greece (Modern Times) – Mia teleia mera
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- Hungary (Európa Könyvkiadó) – Egy tökéletes nap
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- Israel (Kinneret) – יום מושלם
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- Korea (Random House Corea)
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- Poland (WAB) – Taki piękny dzień
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- Romania (Polirom) – O zi perfectă
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- Serbia (Mono i Manjana) – Savršen dan
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- Spain (Anagrama) – Un día perfecto
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- The Netherlands (Mouria) – Een volmaakte dag
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- Turkey (Dogan kitap) – Mükemmel Bir Gün
Foreign publishers of Melania G. Mazzucco’s works
Albania: Albas
Bulgaria: Uniscorp, Jelenkor
Canada: HarperCollins, Harper Perennial
China: Horizon
Croatia: Oceanmore
Denmark: Tellerup, Turbine
Finland: Avain
France: Flammarion, J’ai lu, Editions du Club
Germany, Austria and Switzerland: Piper, Knaus, btb, Hoffmann und Campe
Georgia: Sulakauri
Greece: Diigisi, Modern Times
Hungary: Európa Könyvkiadó
Israel: Schocken, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir
Japan: Michitani
Korea: Random House Corea
The Netherlands and Belgium: Mouria, Atlas-Contact
Norway: Cappelen
Poland: Wab-Foksal
Portugal: Book Cover
Romania: Polirom
Russia: Ast
Serbia: Mono j Manjana, Sezam Book
Spain and South America: Seix Barral, Planeta, Anagrama
Sweden: Norsteds, Contempo
Turkey: Yapi Kredi Culture and Arts, Doğan Kitap
UK: Pushkin
US and UK: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Picador, Thornedike Press