2024-10-21 10:18:00
From October 22nd for Solferino the new volume in which the writer tells the stories of her many mixed breeds: from Lucky to Sissi to Tea, “animals that have a whole world inside them”
«You could say that I began to love literature for the dog stories it told.” But it took many years (and many dogs) for Susanna Tamaro to decide to dedicate an entire book to what has always been her greatest passion. It certainly cannot be said that he strewn his vast literary production with four-legged friends: the exception is Buck, “that hideous bastard (…) who in his smallness contained all the races of the world” by Go where your heart takes youand the other little dog present in Answer me. Never having written about it, however, means nothing. Live them and love them, choosing them as everyday companions was (and still is) natural like breathing for Susanna Tamaro so much so that, in this somewhat complex leap year for her, she has chosen to ideally collect all her dogs – real, real, existing – and put them at the center of a long story. The result is a hybrid, but with heart: a bit of a memoir, a bit of an essay, above all a great love story that is renewed, page after page, without any nostalgia but with the exact wonder that comes from feeling emotions already experienced and with the amazement of grasping their extreme, current necessity. The love of a dog (from Tuesday 22 October in bookstores for Solferino, accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Roberta Mazzoni) thus slips between the decades of Susanna Tamaro’s “pack life” to draw a delicately noisy fresco, in which the canine component overlaps with the human one, as it should be, in a disjointed catalog of souls and animals, of biographies and, above all, “bau-graphies”. It is here that words are like caresses that touch often silent emotional chords; it is here that the stories, light as watercolours, become handmaids of an authentic feeling that truly teaches what joy is.
«Just as Snow White has seven dwarfs, so I want to have seven dogs»: the incipit of the book is combative, but the reality goes far beyond the initial intentions. They are indeed Bella, Trixie, Tobia, Sissi, Lucky, Tea and many other mixed breeds (except one) chasing each other on a sentimental journey spanning an entire existence which, from Trieste, stops in Rome and then stops in a farmhouse in the Umbrian countryside, in Porano, the place where Susanna Tamaro gave shape to her vision by creating a refuge for herself and for all the animals that, over the years, have made up his large family. Dogs, but also donkeys, cats, goats, canaries, sheep, rabbits and bees: small and large lives to follow in a becoming which, with leaps, barks, chases, chirps, returns a mirror of reality, the “extraordinary” enchantment that surrounds us.” Much more naturalist than writer – as she herself has never had any qualms about admitting -, a black belt in martial arts but also in adoptions that’s why he always chooses all his dogs from the kennel,
Susanna Tamaro was moved by a single, compelling desire, that of being able to enjoy the conquest of happiness of her furry friends. Because no other feeling is as rare and extraordinary as that of the gratitude that a dog reserves for those who offer him the long-awaited freedom from the cage. Not to mention the surprises it offers: every dog, like every person, combines its own personality and unique character with its experience.
What comes out of it is a carousel of anecdotes and events with an explosive emotional charge — but absolutely hilarious — which runs through pages in which the temporal dimension is totally instinctive and follows a free and, at times, extravagant flow. Which is canine but definitely human. A test? There are those who are so consumed by the absence that they run away and those who become a valid antidote for sleepless nights; there are those who, despite being an irreproachable guardian, do not disdain to cuddle a kitten as if it were their own puppy and those who kill all the birds in the farmyard after having heard on television – yes, on television – the danger deriving from the flu avian. And they are always dogs who watch over solitary hours of study and writing, silent presences and, why not? potential sources of inspiration, if it is true that Walt Disney also drew original ideas for his characters from living with his four-legged friends. «A dog has a whole world inside and is a great observer, just like a writer»: actors and authors together, protagonists of a breviary of humanity for the use and consumption of those who choose them as faithful accomplices and adventure companions, safe haven against loneliness and illness and even old age, healthy carriers of oxytocin and therefore amulet of happiness, the only remedy against the moonlight of the contemporary era because dogs have filled their souls with ancient sweetness.
Dogs and more dogs. And from the stories that Susanna Tamaro compiles, freeing herself from her usual reserve and always walking at withers height, a practical manual is also born – but far from any dogmatism – for the construction of a happy and solid relationship between bipeds and quadrupeds. A relationship that comes from a lightning and which, like any self-respecting love story, requires care, awareness, dialogue and, above all, deep listening, since “the dog is a living, thinking and loving being”. And, as such, it must be lived, thought about and loved. Because “dogs choose you and then never abandon you.” Is there anything more beautiful?
«My soul needed dogs» Susanna Tamaro declares right from the start and in fact «soul» is the term that recurs several times in a book that is an exercise in beauty capable of providing wonder with its subtle but powerful digging into the folds of the heart in an experience that it goes far beyond reading.
LEARN MORE WITH THE PODCAST
The book
«The love of a dog» by Susanna Tamaro will be in bookstores from Tuesday 22 October for Solferino (pp. 184, €17.50). The illustrations in the book are by Roberta Mazzoni. Susanna Tamaro. On Friday 25 October Tamaro will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Vigevano. The meeting will be moderated by Ermanno Paccagnini (9pm, Teatro Cagnoni di Vigevano, Pavia).
He holds podcasts on Corriere.it
«The love of a dog» is also a podcast, which can be reached from here. Six episodes, a single adventure: that of Susanna Tamaro’s life together with her “pack” of dogs. Adopted, saved, loved. The first episode, «The dog saves a life», is already online, the next one will be available on Friday 25 October. Followed by a new episode per week, on Fridays. At the center of the podcast, the stories of the writer’s dogs but also useful advice on how to choose a dog, how to train it, what to do if it becomes aggressive, how to take it on holiday without trauma…
October 20, 2024 (modified October 21, 2024 | 12:18)
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