Not only memory, but also observation of society, of current affairs, and trust in the power of stories, in the long production of Dacia Maraini, yesterday in Piazza IX Aprile in dialogue with Cristina Dell’Acqua, Latin and Greek scholar, and with the journalist Stefano Salis. A journey between myth, word and music, from antiquity to today, which for the writer, always determined to stay at the heart of things, and to confidently welcome the characters who knock on the door of her narrative world, means remembering and recovering the human part of us all through writing.
And yesterday the meeting at Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano with Jonathan Coe, one of the greatest English narrative talents, was also highly anticipated: in dialogue with the journalist Eva Giovannini, with an always attentive eye on politics, from Thatcher to Brexit (something contrary to British pragmatism) to Farage, the writer with his novels interweaves social criticism and political satire, with a sometimes ferocious and irreverent fresco of a “human comedy” which places the historical and political context of the twentieth century and the new millennium the magnifying glass on the family, observed generation after generation. “There is no novelist who does not put the theme of family at the center of his stories, because it is the center of relationships and power – said Coe who also claimed to take inspiration from social media and online – but in my novels I actually paint a portrait of myself through the many characters with whom I identify story after story.”
Also yesterday, at Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano, moderated by the journalist Laura Berti, Rocco Bellantone, president of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Alberto Bianchi, clinical coordinator of the Smile House Center in Catania, Francesco Mennini, head of the Department of Programming of medical devices, drugs and policies in favor of the NHS, Domenico Scopelliti, creator and vice president of the Smile House ETS Foundation, and the poet Beatrice Zerbini: at the center of attention are the Smile House, a foundation that accompanies children and young adults born with cranio-maxillofacial malformations towards specialist care.
It is certainly a pact of trust that is established between debuting voices and the free literary tournament promoted by GeMS “IoScrittore”, which renews the collaboration with Taobuk, and offers a unique opportunity, that of making one’s voice heard, as Stefano Mauri, president of the GeMS publishing group, recalled yesterday at Palazzo Corvaja together with Ludovica Mauri, editor of Corbaccio, and the writers Barbara Bellomo and Ludovica Case, interviewed by Barbara Sardella, journalist and communications manager for Ubik bookstores. The 400 semi-finalists who move on to the second phase of the tournament were proclaimed during the event.