Andrea Marcolongo (born in

Crema, Lombardy Crema (; ) is a city and (municipality) in the province of Cremona, in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is built along the river Serio River, Serio at from Cremona. It is also the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Crema, who gave the tit ...

on 17 January 1987) is an Italian writer.

Life

Marcolongo studied

Classical Literature Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

Università degli Studi di Milano The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,00 ...

. She then specialized in

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

at Scuola Holden. She worked as a ghostwriter for

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having bee ...

and the Democratic Party between December 2013 and May 2014. In September 2016 Andrea Marcolongo published her first book, ''La lingua geniale. 9 ragioni per amare il greco'' which reached the first place in the Italian and French sales ranking. The book sold 150.000 copies in Italy, reaching the first position in non-fiction ranking and the seventh in the Italian general top ten in January 2017. In December 2016 ''La lingua geniale. 9 ragioni per amare il greco'' won the

Lions Club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

Youth Award at the Cesare Angelini award of

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

. ''La lingua geniale. 9 ragioni per amare il greco'' has been translated in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

for the publishing house

Les Belles Lettres Les Belles Lettres, founded in 1919, is a French publisher specialising in the publication of ancient texts such as the '' Collection Budé''. The publishing house, originally named ''Société Les Belles Lettres pour le développement de la cu ...

, in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

for

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

with the title ''La lengua de los dioses'', in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

for Piper, in

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

for Wereldbibliotheek, in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

for Patakis, in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

for Sandorf, in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for Europa Editions The book obtained positive reviews from the French press, from''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' to ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' who stated about Marcolongo as of '' "the new greek hero"''. The book got a great attention of the public and critics in the

: published by Europa Editions already known for having published

Elena Ferrante Elena Ferrante () is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of '' Neapolitan Novels'' are her most widely known works. ''Time'' magazine ...

, with a translation by Will Schutt, ''The ingenious language ''got a very positive review from ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''with an article by the editor Mary Norris who calls it an “instant classic”, while the writer

André Aciman André Aciman (; born 2 January 1951) is an Italian-American writer. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, he is currently a distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he teaches the history of lit ...

talks about Andrea Marcolongo as of the “new Montaigne”. In 2018 Andrea Marcolongo published in Italy ''La Misura Eroica. Il mito degli Argonauti e il coraggio che spinge gli uomini ad amare'' for

Mondadori Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 19 ...

Enzo Bianchi Enzo Bianchi (born 3 March 1943) is an Italian Catholic layman who founded the Bose Monastic Community and served as its first prior from 1965 to 2017. Biography Enzo Bianchi was born on 3 March 1943 in Castel Boglione, Italy. He earned a diploma ...

wrote on ''

La Stampa (English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...

'' that "navigating through the pages of this book means entering, with measure and amiability, into a single reality, which can also be summarized in a noun and an adjective: the 'human adventure'",'' ''while

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

talked about "a book that is both hyper-classic and ultra-contemporary in its vocation to combine great story, profound essay, personal introspection, motivational appeal "''. La Misura Eroica. Il mito degli Argonauti e il coraggio che spinge gli uomini ad amare'' is translated in 17 countries, including

with the title ''La part du héros'',

and

. A chapter of the book has been translated by the American literary review Liberties. In 2019 Marcolongo published for

the compendium of etymologies ''Alla fonte delle parole'', translated in

with the title ''Étymologies pour survivre au chaos'' (

) and in

with the title ''Etimologías para sobrevivir al caos'' (

). In 2020 Marcolongo published ''La lezione di Enea'' (Laterza), an intimate essay about the

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

. The book is translated in

with the title ''L'art de résister. Comment « l'Éneide » nous apprend à traverser une crise'', which marks the achievement of Marcolongo with the publishing house Gallimard, and is presented at the Philo Forum in

Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...

organized by the newspaper

. In 2022 the lecture Marcologno gave at

has been published in the book ''Être humain?'' directed by Jean Birnbaum and edited by Gallimard. In spring 2021 Marcolongo edited for ''

'' a series in four volumes dedicated to the ancient myth and a children's book about etymologies. She also published ''Il viaggio delle parole'' (

), illustrated by Andrea Ucini and translated in

with the title ''El viaje de las palabras''. Marcolongo's latest book is ''De arte gymnastica. Da Maratona ad Atene con le ali ai piedi'' (Laterza 2022), "an autobiography of running", in which the author talks about her first marathon and the ancient conception of sport. In autumn 2022

published ''Le rose a dicembre'', where Marcolongo wrote a short story about

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

. In Spring 2022 ''Starting from the scratch. The life-changing lesson of Aeneas'' is published in the

Europa Editions Europa Editions is an independent trade publisher based in New York. The company was founded in 2005 by the owners of the Italian press and specializes in literary fiction, mysteries, and narrative non-fiction. Europa has published books by aut ...

with a translation by Will Schutt. Andrea Marcolongo currently lives in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

; she is the vice-president of the Writers of the French Navy, an association affiliated with the Ministry of Defense "committed to preserving the culture of the sea", for which she received the honorary rank of

frigate captain Frigate captain is a naval rank in the naval forces of several countries. Corvette captain lies one level below frigate captain. It is usually equivalent to the Commonwealth/US Navy rank of commander. Countries using this rank include Argenti ...

. She regularly reviews books of foreign literature for the weekly insert Tuttolibri by

and she collaborates with various Italian and foreign newspapers. She is member or the jury of Prix du Livre d'Histoire des Outres-Mer and of Prix Le Grand Continent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcolongo, Andrea 1987 births Living people People from Crema, Lombardy Hellenists