The Foundation recommends
Books selected for you
-
29 June 2023
Diario di un’estate marziana (Diary of a Martian summer)
The diary of a summer spent strolling around Rome, with empty streets and closed offices, a surreal and metaphysical city. Tommaso Pincio walks about re-reading Ennio Flaiano and ...
+
-
21 June 2023
Ferrovie del Messico (Mexican railways)
The story unravels over two years, from 1943 to 1945, with frequent flashbacks to a few decades before, between the late 1920s and the early 1930s. The protagonist ...
+
-
14 June 2023
What do people do all day?
Twelve stories narrated by Peter Cameron – everyday stories about ordinary people. A collection of stories published in magazines and collections over 34 years, from 1980 to 2014, ...
+
-
07 June 2023
History of cycling
Sports journalist Davide Mazzocco narrates 150 years of the history of cycling: races, records, rivalries, feats, and the great protagonists of the cycling world. The book is subdivided ...
+
Diario di un’estate marziana (Diary of a Martian summer)
The diary of a summer spent strolling around Rome, with empty streets and closed offices, a surreal and metaphysical city. Tommaso Pincio walks about re-reading Ennio Flaiano and interweaving his steps with episodes from Flaiano's life. An interplay of echoes between past and present, remembering the years of the first Premio Strega literary prize, won by Flaiano with his unique novel entitled Tempo di uccidere (Time to kill), the post-war years and the world of cinema in which Flaiano had a prominent role, Rome's past and present social life. Pincio's book is a collection of thoughts, written in a style that falls in between essay, biography, autobiography and narrative, through which, starting with Flaiano, the real protagonist arises: Rome, a city that is like a huge cinema set, where all its inhabitants seem to act out a screenplay. The Martian summer in the title is a tribute to the protagonist of one of Flaiano's satirical stories, in which an alien from Mars ends up in Rome and is welcomed with wonder and curiosity, but, after the initial clamour, is forgotten and wonders alone, lost in a city that is impossible not to love and equally impossible not to hate. Indeed, a love-hate relationship, as Pincio calls it, which illustrates Flaiano's feelings for the Eternal City.
Diario di un’estate marziana (Diary of a Martian summer)
Tommaso Pincio
Giulio Perrone Editore, 2022
Ferrovie del Messico (Mexican railways)
The story unravels over two years, from 1943 to 1945, with frequent flashbacks to a few decades before, between the late 1920s and the early 1930s. The protagonist is Francesco Magetti, nicknamed Cesco, member of the Italian Republican Railway Guard of Asti, city that at the time was part of the Italian Social Republic. Cesco receives some orders from higher up – from very high up – demanding him to draw a railway map of Mexico where, according to the nazis, is a mysterious city that hides a terrible weapon, “the ultimate weapon”. With no idea on how to start accomplishing this task, Cesco begins by looking for some sources to get some information, and especially a very rare book entitled “Historia poética y pintoresca de los ferrocarriles en México. Tilde, a librarian, helps him out throughout this feat and he falls hopelessly in love with her. With a taste for adventure, as well as for paradoxes and irony, Griffi interweaves the main plot with a myriad of other stories and an “encyclopaedic” list of characters: urban priests, partisans, nazis, the Führer and his companion, cartographers, brake operators-cum-poets, cemetery attendants, railway workers, and many others. The author creates an enthralling literary universe, full of creativity, using rich and extremely varied language that spans from jargon to scholarly language and spoken dialect.
Ferrovie del Messico: un romanzo d’avventura (Mexican railways: an adventure story)
Gian Marco Griffi
Laurana Editore, 2023
What do people do all day?
Twelve stories narrated by Peter Cameron – everyday stories about ordinary people. A collection of stories published in magazines and collections over 34 years, from 1980 to 2014, whose characters tackle shortcomings and regrets, relationships and solitude, concerns and secrets. The story that lends its title to the book has readers facing a question that throws them into the life of the protagonists and the vicissitudes that unexpectedly disrupt them. A man keeps a small dog locked up in a cupboard, just to take it out for a walk every night, yet the lack of communication between him and his wife will lead the latter to believe he is having a relationship with another woman, as he won't tell her the truth; a woman comes back from Africa to discover she no longer has a home; another woman sneaks around her ex-husband's house and swims in his swimming pool. These are only a few of the stories Cameron regales us with in his elegant and refined prose and precise and well-chosen language.
Che cosa fa la gente tutto il giorno? (What do people do all day?)
Peter Cameron
Adelphi, 2023
History of cycling
Sports journalist Davide Mazzocco narrates 150 years of the history of cycling: races, records, rivalries, feats, and the great protagonists of the cycling world. The book is subdivided into stages, as if it were an imaginary cycling race through time, places and people. From the origins of cycling, with the creation of the first velocipede and its pioneers, from the 1950s to the Roaring Twenties, featuring Costante Girardengo and Alfredo Binda up to Lance Armstrong and the great cyclists of the early 2000s, and through the golden age of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. Mazzocco also includes scandals and controversies, such as the issue of doping, as well as technical and tactical innovations. A great book for cycling enthusiasts and those who would like to discover its history.
Storia del ciclismo (History of cycling)
Davide Mazzocco
Bradipolibri, 2014
-
29 June 2023
Why? 100 philosophers’ stories for curious children
Socrates, Hypatia,, Kant, Voltaire and 96 more of their colleagues will accompany readers through a complex question: what is philosophy? A hundred stories that make the experiences and ...
+
-
22 June 2023
The gardener of dreams
“Once upon a time there was…” an old man, with a typewriter. In a faraway magical land, an elderly man writes and rewrites each word with utmost care, ...
+
-
15 June 2023
Why don’t the stars fall on our heads? And many ...
Do stars come to life, live and die just like us? Why is Galileo so famous? How do you see inside a black hole if it's really that ...
+
-
07 June 2023
Magic candies
Dong-Dong is always playing by himself. No one ever invites him out and he finds very difficult to make the first move. But he likes marbles a lot. ...
+
Why? 100 philosophers’ stories for curious children
Socrates, Hypatia,, Kant, Voltaire and 96 more of their colleagues will accompany readers through a complex question: what is philosophy? A hundred stories that make the experiences and ideologies of the greatest thinkers of yesterday accessible even to youngest readers through the words of the philosophers of today. Each chapter will present children with a small challenge and will have them ponder on themes such as the relationship between humankind and nature, love, faith and much more.
"Why?" is the main question that children ask their parents and adults, questions ranging from the most bizarre to the most serious and deep – or even embarrassing – ones. As per its title Perché? 100 storie di filosofi per ragazzi curiosi is conceived to make philosophy understandable, tangible and stimulating even for today's children, who are increasingly more curious and aware, and don't settle for evasive or ready-made answers but like to think for themselves. From Thales to Aristotle, from Avicenna to Kant, from Husserl to Eco, and so on, young readers will tackle life's biggest questions by following the reasoning of the greatest philosophers – women philosophers, too, as despite what we learned, several women made key contributions to this discipline. The simple style adopted to narrate the lives and thoughts of these great figures makes it easy to turn this into a family activity that will engage children and teenagers, giving them the chance to find those much longed-for answers and look at life's many “trivialities” or difficulties with different eyes. Not only: every story includes a small puzzle, to stimulate reasoning and reflection – just what good philosophers would do.
Perché? 100 storie di filosofi per ragazzi curiosi (Why? 100 philosophers' stories for curious children)
by Umberto Galimberti, Irene Merlini e Maria Luisa Petruccelli
Feltrinelli Kids, 2019
The gardener of dreams
“Once upon a time there was…” an old man, with a typewriter. In a faraway magical land, an elderly man writes and rewrites each word with utmost care, looking for the most suitable place to sow them, the best way to nurture them – with calm and patience – and the most effective techniques to grow them, just like a gardener would do with a young plant or flower.
He plants the sheet of paper on which he sowed these words so that from it, one day, a tree will grow – a tree that won't produce fruit but more sheets of paper, to be bound with much care and love and then “set free”, allowing them to travel far and reach children all over the world, as children will have the privilege of reaping the magic and beauty of these shoots.
The elderly man described by Claudio Gobbetti may remind some of Roald Dahl's BFG (except that this “gardener” has nothing to do with sleeping children or glass jars, but only with words). But, above all, Il giardiniere dei sogni immediately strikes readers for being a poem in graphic novel form: a lyrical style and soft hues, “close-ups” that only widen during the journey, opening up on landscapes and through time slowly flowing before the readers' eyes as the story reaches the hands of children.
Through fantasy and fairy tale devices, author and illustrator convey several important teachings about the beauty and importance of reading, books and writing as if they were trees to be sown and nurtured, as well as about sharing stories with others.
A delicate and very simple story that, perhaps, can help convey how essential cultivating reading is, an activity that shouldn't be neglected but, on the contrary, “nourished” and fostered with love and care. Indeed, if we think about the books we most love, we can easily see how much they taught us to reflect and helped us grow.
Il giardiniere dei sogni (The gardener of dreams)
by Claudio Gobbetti with illustrations by Diana Nikolova
Sassi Junior, 2019
Why don’t the stars fall on our heads? And many ...
Do stars come to life, live and die just like us? Why is Galileo so famous? How do you see inside a black hole if it's really that black? Are there Martians on Mars? Is there someone on the moon?
Perché le stelle non ci cadono in testa? is an amusing mini-encyclopaedia in interview form on space and astrophysics, published as part of the Teste Toste series by Editoriale Scienza. In this series, the publishing house collects a diverse range of works dedicated to women and men who devoted their lives to knowledge and research.
Margherita Hack – together with Federico Taddia – goes with readers on a celestial journey amidst spiral galaxies, threatening asteroids and retrograde planets to find an answer to the funniest and most bizarre questions we'd never have the courage to ask any other astrophysicist. The interview form makes this work very easy to read: we can just look at the questions and discover several anecdotes on the birth, evolution and death of stars, the importance of Galileo in scientific observation or how to identify black holes; or, we can go at our own pace, jumping around questions by simply following the links at the end of the page or as inspired by Roberto Luciani's illustrations.
The 2011 winner of the category dedicated to scientific promotion in the Italian National Città di Biella Literary Award for Children, Perché le stelle non ci cadono in testa? features a dynamic and fun structure that will engage small readers in a constant yet simple dialogue with the great astrophysicist, who will help them understand how what happens in space doesn't just concern the past but our present too and, even more, our future.
Perché le stelle non ci cadono in testa? E tante altre domande sull'astronomia (Why don't the stars fall on our heads? And many other astronomy questions)
by Federico Taddia and Margherita Hack
with illustrations by Roberto Luciani
Editoriale Scienza, 2022
Magic candies
Dong-Dong is always playing by himself. No one ever invites him out and he finds very difficult to make the first move. But he likes marbles a lot. So, one day, he decides to buy some new ones, without realising that they're actually sweets – very special sweets, as a matter of fact. Each one has a different flavour (the Scottish one tastes like peppermint, the spotty one tastes like his dog). Each one, as he enjoys it, allows him to hear the true voice of things and people: that of his dog, the sofa, and even that of his father...
One sweet leads to another and, little by little, Dong-Dong starts seeing the world through different eyes, interacting, feeling new emotions and finally he even ends up making friends with other children.
Le caramelle magiche by Heena Baek, which was also awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2020, was created using a very particular technique: the characters seems moulded by hand with clay, in settings fit for a stop-motion feature. The great expressiveness of their faces, the accuracy of their clothing and backgrounds succeed – also thanks to the playful use of light – in recreating the atmosphere of a cinema set while always keeping the protagonist's feelings on the foreground.
Relationships with his peers, his pet, his father, his grand-mother who had passed away, follow one another within a fantastical and ironic frame, and little Dong-Dong learns to relish these relationships, getting closer to others, approach them with earnestness and sincerity.
Ironic, delicate, touching, with a simple yet essential message: to find our voice, we first need to listen to that of others.
Premio Andersen's critical argument for Le caramelle magiche as Best Graphic Novel: For its fantastical narration suitable to children, which amuses and touches, and where magic becomes the chance to wonder about the words we exchange every day, the relationships with those around us, those who are no longer there, and those who we have not yet met. For its original images, veritable worlds created by the author so that readers can immerse themselves into a tale of friendship, enchantment and courage.
Le caramelle magiche (Magic candies)
by Heena Baek
Terre di Mezzo, 2022
From the world of books
-
29 May 2023
2023 Premio Campiello literary prize: the five runners-up
Friday 26 May saw the announcement of the five runners-up of the Premio Campiello, the prestigious literary prize for Italian fiction founded in 1962 by the Industrial Association ...
+
-
16 May 2023
Turin International Book Fair
The Turin International Book Fair is back, now in its 35th edition, from 18 to 22 May 2023. This year's theme is “Through the looking glass”, which represents ...
+
-
02 May 2023
2023 Campiello Junior literary prize: award ceremony
The Campiello Junior literary prize's award ceremony will be held on 11 May 2023, 11 a.m. (Italian time), at the Teatro Franco Parenti theatre in Milan. The event ...
+
-
23 April 2023
Giornata mondiale del libro
On 23 April, World Book and Copywright Day, established by UNESCO in 1996, is celebrated. The date was chosen because it coincides with the day that Miguel de ...
+
2023 Premio Campiello literary prize: the five runners-up
Friday 26 May saw the announcement of the five runners-up of the Premio Campiello, the prestigious literary prize for Italian fiction founded in 1962 by the Industrial Association of Veneto and sponsored, this year too, by Pirelli. As customary, the Selection Ceremony was held at the Auditorium of Palazzo del Bo, in Padua, where the Literary Jury chose the five short-listed books: –La Resistenza delle donne (Einaudi) by Benedetta Tobagi –Diario di un’estate marziana(Perrone) by Tommaso Pincio –Centomilioni (Einaudi) by Marta Cai –La Sibilla (Laterza) by Silvia Ballestra –In cerca di Pan (nottetempo) by Filippo Tuena The winner will be announced in Venice on 16 September 2023.
Turin International Book Fair
The Turin International Book Fair is back, now in its 35th edition, from 18 to 22 May 2023. This year's theme is “Through the looking glass”, which represents the desire of those who heed it to transcend everyday life and cross over into new worlds where reality and fantasy blend, where all is possible. This edition's guests include Svetlana Aleksievič, Niccolò Ammaniti, Fernando Aramburu, Bruno Arpaia, Alessandro Baricco, Julian Barnes, Peter Cameron, Emmanuel Carrère, Javier Cercas, Andrew Sean Greer, Marco Malvaldi, Rosella Postorino, Chiara Valerio, and many others.
2023 Campiello Junior literary prize: award ceremony
The Campiello Junior literary prize's award ceremony will be held on 11 May 2023, 11 a.m. (Italian time), at the Teatro Franco Parenti theatre in Milan. The event will be hosted by Massimo Polidoro, journalist, author and scientific investigator, with readings by actor Emilia Tiburzi. Further, there will be contributions by Mariacristina Gribaudi, Chair of the Premio Campiello management board; Antonio Calabrò, Director of the Pirelli Foundation; and Roberto Piumini, Chair of the Campiello Junior selection panel. To attend the event, please complete the relevant form at the following link. The event is also open to classes. Free entry until full capacity is reached.
Giornata mondiale del libro
On 23 April, World Book and Copywright Day, established by UNESCO in 1996, is celebrated. The date was chosen because it coincides with the day that Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Garcilaso El Inca de la Vega died; the trio are considered universal pillars of culture. On this day we commemorate Pirelli’s commitment to promoting books and reading through its company libraries and projects such as Campiello Junior, set up in 2021 by the Pirelli Foundation in collaboration with the Fondazione Il Campiello.
-
29 June 2023
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence on 29 June 1929 and died in the same city on 15 September 2006. The first woman journalist in Italy to be ...
+
-
19 June 2023
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand on 19 June 1623 and died in Paris on 19 August 1662. One of the major philosophers of all times, at a ...
+
-
05 June 2023
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, 300 years ago, on 5 June 1723, and died in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790. Smith was one of the first ...
+
-
03 June 2023
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was born in Prague on 3 July 1883 and died in Kierling on 3 June 1924. Though Kafka is considered one of the most important writers ...
+
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence on 29 June 1929 and died in the same city on 15 September 2006. The first woman journalist in Italy to be sent to the war front as special correspondent, Oriana Fallaci was one of the most important figures in Italian journalism, also thanks to her notable interviews with prominent personalities such as Giulio Andreotti, Yassir Arafat, Gaddafi, Khomeini, Henry Kissinger, Ariel Sharon, collected in the volume Intervista con la storia (Interview with history). Amongst her novels we should mention Un uomo (A man),Lettera a un bambino mai nato (Letter to a child never born), Penelope alla guerra (Penelope at war) and Insciallah (Inshallah).
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand on 19 June 1623 and died in Paris on 19 August 1662. One of the major philosophers of all times, at a very early age Pascal began to study mathematics and natural sciences, before moving on to philosophy and theology. Amongst his most important works we find Thoughts, fragments collected during his life and published posthumously by Guillaume Desprez.
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, 300 years ago, on 5 June 1723, and died in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790. Smith was one of the first classical economists who created the basis for the development of modern economy, overcoming the previous mercantilism and physiocratic schools of thought. His most significant work was An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, in which he explains his laissez-faire theory using the metaphor of the ‘invisible hand’.
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was born in Prague on 3 July 1883 and died in Kierling on 3 June 1924. Though Kafka is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th century and a precursor of existentialism, many of his works were only published posthumously. His most famous short story is “The metamorphosis”, in which the transformation of young Gregor Samsa into a huge insect becomes an allegory of “diversity”.