The memory of holidays by the sea, between Finale Ligure and Imperia, gave the Turin writer Andrea Malabaila the inspiration to reconstruct the life of his grandfather, Natale Pennello, who passed away in 2016. A linotype typographer with an adventurous, daring and even fortunate existence, like Malabaila tells the story in the biographical novel “Lungomare nostalgia” written for Edizioni Spartaco and presented on Saturday at the LibrInsieme exhibition at the Imperia library together with the journalist Alessandra Chiappori.
«Before taking me with him to the beach – says Malabaila – my grandfather survived the Nazi-fascist persecution during the war. And also to an argument with Cesare Pavese, who, during the printing of one of his books at the National Artistic Printing House, where he had started working, had allowed himself to correct one word: carronades”. That word, however, was correct, because the carronade is not a badly written cannonade, but rather an ancient model of naval cannon. In 1966, Grandfather Natale won second prize in the Italian lottery, a stroke of luck that allowed him to buy a house in the neighborhood where his daughter later met the man who would become Malabaila’s father.
«The beach of Finale Ligure – continues the writer – is the place where I spent the most time with my grandfather, who was the first to arrive and the last to leave. Hearing his stories made me want to write them. I decided to do it when my grandfather was on the verge of death, to take the last opportunity to hear him recall his many adventures.” Author of various novels published by Marsilio, Fernandel, White Clown, Pendragon, Malabaila is also the founder of Las Vegas editions, with which he publishes new voices in Italian literature. «A commitment – he concludes – that I also made with the help and inspiration of my grandfather, who always pushed me to believe in myself and to carry forward my ideas».
