The Foundation recommends

The Judge and His Hangman

On 3 November 1948, a body is found inside a Mercedes by the roadside near a quiet Swiss village. The victim is a police officer, Ulrich Schmied. The investigation is entrusted to the ageing Chief Inspector Bärlach and the young, ambitious Officer Tschanz. At first, the novel appears to follow the rules of classic detective fiction: a mysterious murder and a thrilling investigation. But in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s hands, the story cuts deeper, with philosophical overtones. The real tension lies in the clash between Bärlach and the wealthy Gastmann, who is soon identified as the prime suspect. They stand at opposite moral extremes. Gastmann is a dyed-in-the-wool nihilist, unbound by conscience. Bärlach, on the other hand, is driven by an unyielding faith in justice at any cost, hardened by a confrontation with Gastmann many years earlier. Their duel becomes more than a criminal case. It turns into a meditation on justice itself—on its limits, its inability to reach the absolute truth, and the passions that can corrupt even the pursuit of what seems right. Dürrenmatt’s prose is spare and precise. It strikes cleanly. It unsettles. It leaves the reader facing the fractures in their own moral ground.

The Judge and His Hangman
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Adelphi, 2015 (original edition, 1952)

Our Souls at Night

Holt, Colorado, is the setting for all of Kent Haruf’s novels. Addie Moore has lived alone for years in this small town, ever since her husband passed away. The solitude weighs on her, heavier with each passing day. One afternoon she makes an unexpected request of her neighbour, Louis Waters, himself a widower. Would he consider spending the nights together, simply as friends? To talk. To keep warm. Because the long, silent nights are the hardest part of her life. So begins a tender love story between two people who find one another late in life. It is shaped by memories and confidences, and by small, everyday gestures. A bond to be nurtured with care and defended with courage. Fighting against the prejudice of a small town in the American heartland, where judgement comes quickly and gossip travels fast. The final work of one of the finest American writers of recent decades, this short novel is written in Haruf’s unmistakable style: spare, direct, and quietly elegant. In just a few pages, he captures the intimacy and deep understanding between the two, as they share their dreams, hopes, fears and desires.

Our Souls at Night
Kent Haruf; translation by Fabio Cremonesi
NNE, 2017

So You Think You Know Milan?

Milano Says is a social community that has been telling the story of Milan in all its many facets since 2019, through channels that are followed by more than 200,000 subscribers. Published by Cairo, the guide explores the history, traditions, trivia and everyday life of a city that is all too often reduced to clichés: fog, the rat race, aperitivi along the Navigli, the Madonnina, and turnover figures. The book is an expression of a deep passion for the city and careful historical research into its hidden secrets and lesser-known corners. Its sections suggest a series of walking itineraries through the city, stopping off at places of particular interest. This is followed by detailed portraits of some of Milan’s main districts and its urban parks, as well as a section devoted to the history of some of its most iconic landmarks. These include the Pirellone, which reshaped the city’s skyline and became the symbol of Milan’s economic boom in the 1960s. There is also a small glossary of typical Milanese phrases and expressions. Then there are copious sections devoted to lesser-known stories and to research and new technologies created in Milan. These include the story of Pirelli, the first company to produce rubber articles in Italy, founded right in the heart of Milan. As you turn the pages, you will also come across QR codes that take you beyond print and into in-depth videos from Milano Says. This is a book for curious visitors, but also for passionate residents eager to discover something new.

E tu la conosci Milano?
Milano Says
Cairo, 2025

Father Christmas Executed

In December 1951, an effigy of Father Christmas was hanged and set alight in front of Dijon Cathedral. These were the years of post-war France, a period steeped in the consumer culture that was sweeping in from the United States, and both the Protestant and Catholic churches were quick to protest against what they saw as the growing paganisation of Christmas. Claude Lévi-Strauss, the anthropologist and founder of Structuralism, decided to write a short essay on the figure of Father Christmas, taking this incident as his cue. Wry and perceptive, the article appeared in the politically engaged journal Les temps modernes and explores the deep cultural layers of the festivity and of this figure whom the anthropologist classifies not as a myth or a legend, but as an authentic divinity  –  with the curious distinction that, unlike all others, only children believe in him. Father Christmas’s cultural function has thus become that of separating yet binding together two social groups, acting as a liminal figure who marks the rite of passage from one to the other. Adults, who don the beard, red suit and sack, perform this ritual role, becoming overseers of childhood (one need only think of how children are disciplined through the promise of gifts for good behaviour) and ensuring their passage into adulthood and thus into society, through the initiation that comes when the truth is revealed. This kind of ritual function is not unique to Father Christmas, for it appears in comparable rites across the world, such as the spirits of the dead, the Kachina, in the traditions of the Pueblo peoples of the south-western United States. Ultimately, the pyre staged by the French clergy became a kind of auto-da-fé, in which the object of iconoclasm was not destroyed but transfigured, restoring Father Christmas to his ritual function and proving his enduring power.

Babbo Natale giustiziato
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Sellerio, 2024