“La deriva” was selected for the prestigious 2026 Campiello Prize, the latest novel by the Messina writer Graziano Delorda (fox&sparrow editions). The same novel was also selected for the 2026 Mondello Prize. It is a “bitter” and whirlwind, cutting novel, which tells the story of Carlo Piccolo, protagonist of the “Milano da bere” of the 1980s, among strong emotions, cynicism, betrayals, social and personal wounds, grudges. All in a literary track – compelling and original – that unites North and South, Lombardy and a small Calabrian village, home to the summer holiday that the author evokes with intense, nostalgic, dense features, in a vibrant Bildungsroman, which can be read on multiple levels of reading, as a reflection on the many “drifts” that can mark lives.
Delorda, born in 1972, is the author of the novels Pace, La serpe nera, Little olive, Droide e la notte, which combine a contemporary gaze on our society with an attentive vision of our South, between lights and shadows.
Delorda is co-author with the cartoonist Lelio Bonaccorso of the two illustrated volumes of the series “My grandmother said it!”, dedicated to popular Sicilian and Messina sayings, volumes which are achieving considerable success and wide diffusion among enthusiasts and scholars in the anthropological field and our customs, following in the wake of scholars such as Quartarone, Cavarra, A.Sarica, etc.