Sandro Veronesi (writer)
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Sandro Veronesi (born 1959) is an Italian novelist, essayist, and journalist. After earning a degree in architecture at the
University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...
, he opted for a writing career in his mid to late twenties. Veronesi published his first book at the age of 25, a collection of poetry (''Il resto del cielo'', 1984) that has remained his only venture into verse writing. He has since published five novels, three books of essays, one theatrical piece, numerous introductions to novels and collections of essays, interviews,
screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...
s, and television programs. Veronesi has twice been awarded Italy's most prestigious literary prize, the Premio Strega: in 2006 for his novel and in 2020 for his novel '' The Hummingbird'' (''Il colibrì'').


Works

''Il resto del cielo'' consists of twenty-five short compositions, none longer than fourteen verses, that speak to the general problematics of communication, all of which are underscored by a constant
coincidentia oppositorum The unity of opposites ( or ) is the philosophical idea that opposites are interconnected by the way each is defined in relation to the other. Their interdependence unites the seemingly opposed terms. The unity of opposites is sometimes equated wi ...
. Seemingly simple verses, they speak eloquently to the narrating voice's quotidian landscape. His first novel, ''Per dove parte questo treno allegro'' (1988), is the story of a typical relationship of the 1980s between father and son. A troubled rapport between them, the father is an adventurous businessman who, while deep in debt, has squirrelled away a few hundred thousand
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in Switzerland. The son, an insipid thirty-year-old, who acts half his age, is a do-nothing with strange habits. While the two spend a few strained weeks together, their lives eventually begin to find some similarities. With his second novel, ''Gli sfiorati'' (1990), Veronesi approaches the family thematics in a much more dramatic fashion. A family recomposed of two previously split ones, here too the father and son experience a troubled relationship. Mete, however, finds comfort in developing rapport with his beautiful
stepsister Step-siblings are children born of two different families who have been joined by marriage. A male step-sibling is a stepbrother and a female is a stepsister. The step-siblings relationship is connected through law and is not a blood relation. ...
. All this takes place in Rome, intertwined with other narratives of various social types that one might expect to find in such a chaotic metropolis that Veronesi depicts. Experimental, in some ways, this novel verges on the fantastic, while the author offers up a portrait of the early 1990s and its polymorphous, youthful generation, represented herein by the literal, and metaphorical, sign of "schiumevolezza." Faithful to the theme of troubled relationships between two people of different generations, ''Venite venite
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'' (1995) changes the dynamics to that of father-daughter. As he did in his previous novels, especially in Gli sfiorati, here too Veronesi offers up a gallery of extraordinary characters, beginning with the father, Ennio Miraglia, a representation of the 1980s
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Italy, and his daughter Viola, whose desire to free herself of her father's Italy is underscored in the novel's title, her hopes that the American bombers come and destroy that which she abhors. ''La forza del passato'' (2000; Premio Viareggio L. Repaci and the
Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A jury of literary experts (''giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ...
) continues the father-son relationship. This time, however, the father is absent (dead), and – again different from before – we move from a positive memory of the dead father to one that questions his son's knowledge of who he truly was. Gianni Orzan is a writer of
children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...
whose life is suddenly shattered when he realizes that what he always believed about his father, and by extension of himself, may have all been a façade. Through Gianni's eventual
stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which i ...
, both he and the novel's reader constantly shift between the present and, through the character's memory, the past. ''Ring City'' (2001) is a "children's novel,” for lack of a better term. As such, it figures as a wonderful companion piece to ''La forza del passato'', as it is surely a book Gianni Orzan would have written. Topolino (
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) must confront the Fosterman clan, who has taken over the once tranquil city of Vocalia, transforming it into a giant
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. ' (2005) won him Italy's most prestigious award, the
Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( ) is the most important Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published between 1 March of t ...
. Having lost his wife to a natural death, Pietro Paladini is able to recover his existential bearings only after re-examining life from its
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
ical underbelly, in his subsequent dealings with the people in his life, especially when he unorthodoxly hangs around in front of his daughter's
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. An assiduous essayist, much of the material in his non-fiction collections appeared in various daily and weekly
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and
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, and serials, which include: ''
Il manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...
'', ''Epoca'', ''Il Gambero Rosso'', ''La Gazzetta del Prato'', ''
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'', ''Nuovi Argomenti'', ''Panta'', ''
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''. These books to date include: ''Cronache italiane'' (1992) and ''Live. Ritratti, sopralluoghi e collaudi'' (Bompiani, 1996), each of which originate chiefly from his journalistic writings. ''Occhio per occhio. La pena di morte in quattro storie'' (1992), instead, is an integral study of the death penalty and how it is administered in four different localities around the world:
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,
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, the
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, and California. In 2002, Bompiani brought out his previous two collections, together with his ''“Nuove cronache"'' (1996–2002), in ''Superalbo. Le storie complete''. In addition to the above, he has also written numerous introductions of various sorts for numerous books that range from novels to collections of essays on many topics, including soccer and rock music. Most recently, he ventured into the world of theatre with his No Man's Land (2003), a drama originating from and similar to Danis Tanovic's
film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
of 2001, this time however with a good dose of Veronesi's caustic
irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
. Veronesi collaborates with numerous newspapers and literature magazines. He is also the founder of the publishing house Fandango Libri along with
Domenico Procacci Domenico Procacci (born 8 February 1960) is an Italian film producer. Life and career Born in Bari, Procacci debuted as a producer in the late 1980s, when he co-founded with Renzo Rossellini and others the production company Vertigo. In 1990 ...
, and of the
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Radiogas. In 2010, Italian
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''
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'' reported that Fandango's artistic director, as part of the promotional campaign of new Veronesi's book, titled ''“XY"'', had announced to having inserted some fictional articles in
italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...
Wikipedia to attract new potential buyers. Shortly after he publicly apologized, claiming also to have included just one article in it.wiki.


Bibliography


Fiction

* ''Il resto e il cielo''. Prato: Edizioni del Palazzo, 1984. * ''Per dove parte questo treno allegro''. Rome: Theoria, 1988 * ''Gli sfiorati''. Milan: Mondadori, 1990. * ''Venite venite B-52''. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1995. * ''La forza del passato''. Milan: Bompiani, 2000. * ''Ring City''. Milan: Disney, 2001. * ''No Man's Land''. Milan: Bompiani: 2003. * '. Milan: Bompiani, 2005; English translation: '' Quiet Chaos'', 2005. * ''Brucia Troia''. Milan: Bompiani, 2007. * ''XY''. Rome: Fandango Libri, 2010. * ''Profezia'' (short story). RCS Quotidiani, 2011. * ''Baci scagliati altrove (racconti)''. Rome: Fandango Libri, 2011. * ''Terre rare''. Milan: Bompiani, 2014. * ''Non dirlo. Il Vangelo di Marco''. Milan: Bompiani, 2015. * '' Il colibrì''. Milan: La Nave di Teseo, 2019


Non-fiction

* ''Cronache italiane''. Milan: Mondadori, 1991. * ''Occhio per occhio. La pena di morte in quattro storie''. Milan: Mondadori, 1992. * ''Live. Ritratti, sopralluoghi e collaudi''. Milan: Bompiani, 1996. * ''Superalbo. Le storie complete''. Milan: Bompiani, 2002. * ''Viaggi e Viaggetti. Finché il tuo cuore non è contento''. Milan: Bompiani Overlook, 2013 * ''Un dio ti guarda''. Milan: La Nave di Teseo, 2016 * ''Cani d'estate''. Milan: La Nave di Teseo, 2018


Introductions, essays, and interviews

* “Il trattino, uno e trino,” interview with Francesca Serafini in ''Punteggiatura''. Alessandro Baricco, Filippo Taricco, Giorgio Vasta, Dario Voltolini, eds. BUR: Scuola Holden, 2001, p 145-54. * “John Fante: la giovinezza come destino” in John Fante.'' Un anno terribile''. Rome: Fazi, 2001, p 7-16. * “Cento piccoli Totti,” Nuovi argomenti (January–March 2000) 5th series: 84–93. * “Interview” with Cristiana Lardo, in ''L’ultima letteratura italiana: scrittori a Tor Vergata: interventi ed interviste''. Cristiana Lardo and Fabio Pierangeli, eds. Rome: Vecchiarelli, 1999, p 135-41. * “Tra gli Smith e san Paolo (epigrafi)” in ''Improvviso il novecento: Pasolini professore''. Giordano Meacci, ed. Rome: Minimum Fax, 1999, p 189-226. (interview/essay) * “Tirchieria del racconto e generosità del romanzo,” in ''Seminario sul racconto''. Luigi Rustichelli, ed. Boca Raton:
Bordighera Press Bordighera Press is an independent publisher that was founded in 1989 by Fred Gardaphé, Paolo Giordano, and Anthony Julian Tamburri. Committed to Italian and Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Ita ...
, 1998, p 48-59. * “Interview”, with Laura Lepri, in ''Panta'': special issue, “Scrittura creativa. La scrittura creativa raccontata dagli scrittori che la insegnano,” Laura Lepri, ed. Milano: Bompiani, 1997, p 45-55. * “Ma smettetela di chiamarci giovani scrittori,” ''L’Unità'', 8 aprile 1995: 21.


Translations

* Alastair McEwen: ''The Force of the Past''. New York: Ecco, 2003.


Further reading

* Barbara Castaldo, “Sandro Veronesi” in ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: Contemporary Italian Fiction''. Columbia: Bruccoli Clark Layman. Forthcoming. * Filippo La Porta, “Sandro Veronesi” in La nuova narrativa italiana: travestimenti e stili di fine secolo. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1995. 58–62. * Cristiana Lardo, “Sandro Veronesi: dichiarazione d’amore,” in ''L’ultima letteratura italiana: scrittori a Tor Vergata: interventi ed interviste''. Cristiana Lardo and Fabio Pierangeli, eds. Rome: Vecchiarelli, 1999. 133-34. * Stefania Meli, “Esistenze abusive nei romanzi di Sandro Veronesi,” in L’ultima letteratura italiana: scrittori a Tor Vergata: interventi ed interviste. Cristiana Lardo e Fabio Pierangeli, eds. Rome: Vecchiarelli, 1999. 142-46; * Anthony Julian Tamburri, “Abitare in limine: ''Per dove parte questo treno'' ica tanto''allegro'',” ''Esperienze letterarie''. Vol. 40 (2005): forthcoming, 37 ms.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Veronesi, Sandro 1959 births Living people Italian male writers People from Florence University of Florence alumni Strega Prize winners Prix Femina Étranger winners Viareggio Prize winners Premio Campiello winners