2023-09-12 12:04:49
by GIULIA ZIINO
In bookstores and on newsstands for Solferino, the bestseller that launched the writer into the world. And on October 6th “The wind blows where it wants” arrives, the new novel that takes up its legacy. The «The letter of the heart» competition is underway: whoever wins will be awarded a prize at BookCity with the author
«The rose suggested it to me. This morning, when I passed her she said to me: “Take the paper and write her a letter”. Nourished with love and watered with literary references (a little girl who planted it in the garden was inspired by reading The Little Prince) the rose cannot help but give good advice: it was born from that suggestion, in fact – “write her a letter” -, one of most read and loved books of our recent years. That novel – the long message from a grandmother to her distant granddaughter, the little girl on the rose who has since become a girl – is Go where your heart takes you: a “sentimental” novel, enthralling and strong to the point of launching the author, the then Susanna Tamaro was almost making her debut, in the literary universe without any editorial strategy having bet on it, only thanks to word of mouth among readers, and with such an intensity that, since it came out for the first time, it has never run out again .
Almost thirty years have passed – it was 1994 – and now, to celebrate the round figure and pay homage to a timeless story, Solferino has decided to bring back to bookstores and newsstands what was immediately a literary case, then an international bestseller with millions of copies sold, then two years later also a film directed by Cristina Comencini with Virna Lisi and Margherita Buy giving the face to the old and young Olga. Return on September 12, thirty years later, Go where your heart takes you. To read or reread. Double opportunity: on 6 October, in fact, the new novel by Susanna Tamaro, The wind blows wherever it wants, will also arrive in bookshops, again for Solferino.
There is a link between the two books, the old and the new, you can already hear it in the sound of the two titles which evoke the light but decisive (and inevitable) strength of feelings. And there is the connection of the letters. Even in The Wind Blows Where It Wants, in fact, the protagonist is a woman who is no longer young – yesterday she was Olga, today she is Chiara, on the threshold of sixty – and she too chooses to put on paper, in the silence of her house on the hill , some knots of his life. Write to remember, clarify for yourself, explain to those you love the reasons for the choices, the silences, the mistakes.
Here, in the new book, there are three letters – one for Chiara’s adopted daughter, the other for her natural daughter, the third for her husband – and they tell of ties and tears between generations, unresolved relationships and budgets with which to come to terms pacts when age moves forward and asks for an account. The same need to say about the novel from thirty years ago, the same need to get to the bottom of things, weigh up, leave a testimony by relying on the long times of waiting. «I know that among our agreements at the time of your departure there was the one that we would not write to each other and reluctantly I respect it – Olga said to her niece in Go where your heart takes you -. These lines will never take flight to reach you in America. If I am no longer there when you return, they will be here waiting for you.”
What has changed in thirty years? Between one novel and another, between the world we live in today and that of our recent past? Everything and nothing, perhaps. One thing, however, divides the sixty-year-old Chiara from her twenty-year-old daughters: “There was a time when telephones were attached to the walls, on the street you could call us from telephone booths.” There were expectations, distances: Chiara from Il vento blows wherever she wants receives photos and messages in real time, the sound of WhatsApp breaks the silence of her solitude in the hills. This didn’t happen to Olga from Go Where She Brings You Her Heart nor to her nephew who left to study in the United States: it was the nineties. It happens to us today.
Why then write letters, again? Why rely on long, deferred times? «What need is there? You will ask yourself. Don’t we already communicate enough? – Susanna Tamaro makes Chiara say -. It’s true, we now have the ability to send each other messages at all times of the day and night, overcoming any geographical barrier; such a continuous exchange of information, however, is not very different from that of ants who, upon meeting, touch each other’s antennae to signal a nearby food source. But is this level of communication sufficient for us human beings?”. Evidently not, for Chiara. For Susanna Tamaro. For those who, accepting the invitation of the Solferino publishing house, will choose to send their heartfelt letter – the one never written, left in the drawer, imagined: to a parent, to a child, to a friend, to a love. The occasion is a competition, «The letter of the heart», which starts on September 12th to celebrate the next release of Il vento blows where it wants and the return of Go where the heart takes you and lasts until October 9th. Three of those who have uploaded their letters to the platform will win
laletteradelcuore.it
: they will be awarded in November at BookCity Milan, in the presence of Susanna Tamaro. Maximum freedom (the only limit is the size, between one thousand and four thousand characters), the basic idea is to celebrate the strength of the written word as a vehicle to tell ourselves, open up, love. Thirty years ago, today, always.
The competition: the winners awarded at BookCity with the writer
A letter from the heart. Left in the pen, dreamed of, never written. On the occasion of the release (6 October) of Susanna Tamaro’s new novel The wind blows where it wants and the re-edition of Go where the heart takes you, the Solferino publishing house is launching the «The letter of the heart» competition. From 12 September to 9 October it will be possible to upload to
laletteradelcuore.it
your letter (between one thousand and four thousand characters in length including spaces and punctuation). The letters accepted as meeting the criteria and published on the platform can be voted on by users. From 12 September to 15 October a technical jury will choose three winners and draw ten voting users. The authors of the three winning letters will win the publication of the letter, an «Tutto» subscription to time.news (digital newspaper plus site without limits), a copy of Il vento blows wherever it wants with a dedication from the author and ten Solferino books available on
solferinolibri.it/
. The ten voters will receive the novel with dedication and three Solferino books. The winners will be awarded at BookCity Milan (from 15 to 19 November) in the presence of Susanna Tamaro. Full rules on
laletteradelcuore.it
.
September 12, 2023 (modified September 12, 2023 | 11:57)
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