Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site
Main
Page This family-friendly site celebrates Italian culture for the enjoyment of children and
adults. Site-Overview
My Two New Italophile Sites
Italophile Book Reviews offers personal views on many books that
might interest lovers of Italy. Authors and Publishers: I
review books set in Italy, or about Italy and Italian culture, or about
hyphenated Italian culture. My site is family-friendly. Indie (Self)
published books, and small publishing houses are welcome. Contact:
info @ italophiles.com Italophile Books is
an Amazon.com linked shop that has only products Italophiles are sure to
love. Shop with no distractions! You can click through to
the full Amazon.com site at any time, keeping your shopping cart.
Checkout is through Amazon.com's usual secure system. The authors I feature here have been on the bestseller list in Italy
for over the past two years, some even longer. Not all of their books are translated into English, but at least one
of each has been translated. Some of their books have been made into films. So keep your
eyes open, and you may see them at a theatre near you. All of these authors are available from Amazon.com. I've
made lists of the Amazon offerings for you to consult, to see
what's available, at what price, and what others say about them. Just
click on the text below each author's entry or on the book ad. Italo Calvino is probably the most known Italian writer outside of
Italy, and for good reason. From Amazon.com: "One of the warmest and gentlest collections
of stories by Calvino, and one of the most grounded in the real world.
Lovely and elegant prose that lolls in your imagination like a story
whispered into your ear on late spring day." That quote was written about Difficult Loves but it
beautifully describes the attractions of Italo Calvino's writing:
the human warmth, the gentle spirit, the intimate knowledge of life,
graceful prose, a stunningly fertile imagination, and the sheer,
soothing pleasure of reading his work.
Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He is
the author of three novels, as well as a collection of short stories. At
thirty-four, he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Viareggio-Repaci
prize for I'm Not Scared which has been translated into twenty
languages and is now a film. One of his books is I'll Get
Hold of You and Carry You Away (Ti prendo e ti porto via).
Here's this, from the book jacket: The sea is there but you
don't see it from Ischiano Scalo, a town of four houses next to
a mosquito-ridden lagoon. This is the scene in which two
tormented love stories take place. Pietro and Gloria are two
young people. She is the daughter of a bank director; he is the
son of a psychopathic herder. She is beautiful, confident and a
bit arrogant; he is timid, unsure, a dreamer. And yet a strange
feeling that curiously resembles love attracts them to each
other... After years away, Graziano Biglia returns to Ischiano,
a worn-out playboy. He meets Professor Flora Palmieri, a woman
alone and mysterious who everyone in town keeps at a distance.
They would seem to belong to two very different universes, but deep
down it is actually their opposite poles that create the sparks,
so... The puppet-master narrator, the manipulator of destinies,
Ammaniti creates and disposes of coincidences, ready to capture every
instance of comic or unsettling aspects of reality. I'll Get
Hold of You and Carry You Away is a tender and cruel epic of the
discovery of the world, and of the long injury that is childhood. Another book is I'm Not Scared (Io non ho paura). Here's
this, from the jacket: In the silence of the Puglian countryside, a group of
children play in a field of grain. One of them, Michele, discovers
an evil that exists, that is terribly real, and it is worse than the
worst nightmare that any child can possible imagine. It's now a
film in international release. And his third book, also on the bestseller lists, is Mud (Fango),
described this way: The new, grotesque heroes of the young, urban, who are
at the same time out of control and conformists, banal and unpredictable
while pretending nonchalance, or passing off a modest ambition for a
savage delirium. The author has a website. My list of this author's
books at Amazon.com Umberto Eco broke into the worldwide bestseller lists with the
erudite, semiotic, historical mystery The Name of the Rose (Il nome
della rosa), later made into a film starring Sean Connery as the
Holmesian monk. His other big seller was Foucoult's Pendulum
(Il pendulo di Foucoult). Queen Loana's Mysterious Flame (La misteriosa fiamma della regina
Loana) is his latest bestseller. It's the story of a man who
reawakens without his memories. So he goes back to his childhood
home, and rereads his past, learning things about himself that perhaps
he'd already forgotten before his illness. My list of this author's
books at Amazon.com The late pope is the author of many books, including books of
poetry. They all hit the bestseller lists in Italy, where he was
considered an adopted 'Italian'. His last
book, Memory and Identity (Memoria e identità), is still
there. It's described as: The last long-awaited book by Giovanni Paolo
II in which the Holy Father deals with some of the big historical
themes, in particular the ideologies of totalitarianism, like communism
and fascism, and provides answers to the most profound questions of our
lives. My list of this author's
books at Amazon.com Margaret Mazzantini was born in Ireland to an
Irish mother and Italian father and lives in Italy with her husband, the
director Sergio Castellitto. She is also an accomplished actress. Her book Zorro was written as a
monologue for the author's husband. Her book Don’t Move
(Non ti muovere) won Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, the Premio Strega.
It is the author’s second novel. Random House site
for this book in English. It is now a film, starring her husband
and Penelope Cruz. The author has a very creative website. My list of this author's
books at Amazon.com Mr.
Terzani was a journalist. In 1976, a Chinese fortune-teller warned Tiziano
Terzani, a correspondent for “Der Spiegel” in Asia: “Be careful. In
1993, you run the risk of dying. In
that year, don’t take any airplanes”.
In 1992, Terzani was tired, doubting the value of his work. He recalled the prophesy, and saw it as an opportunity to see
the world through new eyes. He
decided to not take an airplane for one year, but without giving up his
job. The result of this
experience is the book A Fortune-Teller Told Me (Un indovino mi
disse), that is a combination of an adventure novel, an
autobiography, a travel story, and journalistic reporting. And
his book In Asia: 'The author writes about his Asia and the ties that he
has made with the most mysterious and contradictory of all the
continents. The voice of the journalist and that of Asia
intertwine in this book that is autobiographical, journalistic
reporting, a history of customs, and an adventure story.' His latest bestseller is Un altro giro di giostra. It's
described as: A long voyage in the world to fight his
cancer. Tiziano Terzani tells of his itinerary for a cure in
far-away countries and cultures. It's not just a travel book, but
also a journey to his inner-self, spiritual, and wise. You
can read an article from the Telegraph
written at the time of the author's recent death from cancer. My list of this author's
books at Amazon.com If you want to see other authors, then
you can use this Amazon.com Search tool. Just enter
'Books' in the 'Search' field, and the author's name in the 'Keywords'
field. Then click on the 'Go' button to see the full list,
people's comments on the books, and the prices.
Also see my pages:
Historical
Novels set in Italy
Several
Bestselling
Italian Writers and Their Books
Short
Stories - Dual Language Collections Below
Introduction
Italo Calvino
Niccolò Ammaniti
Umberto Eco
Giovanni Paolo II
Margaret Mazzantini
Tiziano Terzani
Search Amazon.com Books
Short
Stories - Dual Language Collections
