2023-11-29 16:36:43
The Christmas holidays are approaching, marked as always by the exchange of gifts under the tree. A real ritual that accompanies Italians, although to a different extent depending on availability and approach towards purchases, in the last days of the year. Having left ‘Black Friday’ behind, which has now taken hold in us too, it is now time to prepare for the rush for gifts among which books occupy a place of honour. Novels, essays, detective stories and reports will ‘invade’ decorated and festive homes, so much so that, for publishers, this is a greedy period for sales.
So what to give as a gift this year? What are the ten titles that should not be missing from the ‘shopping cart’? The first suggestion is that of a book that has just arrived on the shelves and is already at the top of the sales rankings. This is Maurizio de Giovanni’s latest novel ‘Soledad. A December by Inspector Ricciardi’, on the shelves with the publisher Einaudi. The author of the Bastards of Pizzofalcone series sets his commissioner’s adventure in 1939 as Italy prepares to spend its last peaceful Christmas. But Naples, a city that has always been the backdrop to de Giovanni’s creative universe and in which Ricciardi works, is shocked by the murder of Erminia Cascetta, a woman who had a great desire to live. A reason, this, together with that of loneliness, the hallmark of the entire book, which perhaps paradoxically lies at the basis of her death.
From the dark atmospheres staged by de Giovanni to a thriller born from the pen of one of the masters of the genre, John Grisham, who has more than 40 novels to his credit in a 31-year career with over 200 million copies sold. Mondadori has published ‘The Exchange’ in which the same protagonist of ‘The Partner’ returns, the legal thriller that made the author famous in 1991. The action takes place in New York in 2005. Mitch McDeere and his wife Abby – who for many readers have the faces of Tom Cruise and Jeanne Tripplehorn, protagonists of Sidney Pollack’s film based on ‘The Partner’ – they are a successful couple: he is the partner of the largest law firm in the world, while Abby is editor of cooking books. They have two young children. Theirs seems like an idyllic and flawless picture but they will have to deal with their incredible past which has a great test in store that they will have to face.
A volume to take into consideration, then, is ‘The Book of Facts 2023’ by time.news, now in its 33rd edition, released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the news agency. Available in paperback and online in digital formats (e-book and app), the volume offers a complete, detailed and in-depth overview of all the events that characterized the entire span of a year. Enriched by the preface of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the importance of birth rate and family, as well as by 14 authoritative contributions from the world of politics, economy and society, the volume also proposes, as a recurring theme, that of artificial intelligence . Theme to which the contribution of the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano is dedicated, which together with that of the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci stands out among the other institutional interventions.
In these turbulent times in terms of international politics, an essay capable of helping to understand global geopolitical scenarios cannot be missing, especially now that two major conflicts are underway on our doorstep. The director of ‘La Repubblica’, Maurizio Molinari, has sent ‘Disputed Mediterranean’ onto the shelves. Because the West and its rivals need it’ (Rizzoli). “Three global powers, a dozen competing medium powers and five ongoing conflicts make the Mediterranean the strategic heart of the planet”, writes the journalist introducing his work which analyzes the geopolitical situation of our time.
To remain within the scope of international current events, ‘L’Urlo. Israel and Palestine. The need for dialogue in times of war’ (The Ship of Theseus) by Tahar Ben Jelloun. “I, an Arab and Muslim by birth – says the novelist and journalist who won the Goncourt Prize in 1987 – cannot find the words to express the horror of what Hamas did on 7 October 2023. Barbarism has no excuses nor justifications”.
“On the opposite front – he continues – the Palestinians in Gaza have been living under an embargo for over fifteen years, they have learned to know death in all its forms. Now the Israeli army is not only attacking the militiamen, but bombing entire neighborhoods and killing defenseless families “In the face of these events, my anger no longer knows which direction to take. Anger – says Ben Jelloun – is impotence, it is the fire inside that we cannot control. This is the time of war, the time of retaliation, the time of revenge, while we should demand time for dialogue. But no one, at the moment, seems to be looking towards that day.”
Another book not to be missed is the one in which Antonio Manzini takes up the threads of the investigations of his most beloved character, the deputy commissioner Rocco Schiavone. In ‘Will our heroes be able to find their friend who mysteriously disappeared in South America?’ (Sellerio), the state police official with a difficult past is on an unofficial mission thousands of kilometers from his hated Aosta, with his old friend Brizio. They want to find Furio, their other lifelong companion, who disappeared between Buenos Aires, Mexico and Costa Rica. Furio, for his part, launched himself at breakneck speed on the trail of Sebastiano, the fourth of the group, who fled to South America to escape a terrible guilt.
Now four more reports starting from the volume ‘You never lack joy. Brief itinerary of liberation’ (Garzanti) in which the theologian Vito Mancuso proposes his “philosophy of liberation” to open up to a more authentic existence”, passing through an ad hoc proposal for cinema enthusiasts. The actor Tom Hanks, after linking his name to famous interpretations, he made his debut as a writer with his first novel, ‘Birth of a masterpiece’, published in Italy by Bompiani.
To close the review of the ten titles not to be missed, two more indications. The first is ‘The American Garden’, the ‘gothic’ novel by Pupi Avati set immediately after the Liberation, in the bookshop with Solferino, and the second is ‘Once upon a time in Italy. The Sixties’ (Feltrinelli) by Enrico Deaglio, the first volume of an Italian history that will reach the present day.
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