Two Nobel Prize winners, the Turkish Orhan Pamuk and Abdulrazak Gurnah born on the island of Zanzibar, arrived in England as a refugee at the end of the 60s, with ‘The Last Gift’ just released in Italy by The Ship of Theseus. The first edition of the Turin International Book Fair directed by a woman, Annalena Benini, also marks the highly anticipated arrival in Italy, for the first time after the stabbing, of Salman Rushdie who in ‘Knife. Meditations after an attempted assassination ‘(Mondadori) recounted that terrible experience, opening her personal sphere.
From 9 to 13 May many big names in foreign literature will be in Turin, starting from the opening day with the inaugural lesson ‘The very slow start of my very fast career’ by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout who will also talk about her latest novel ‘ Lucy in front of the sea’ (Einaudi) on the days of the pandemic. Yu Hua is expected from Beijing, the best-selling Chinese author in the world whose new novel ‘The City That Doesn’t Exist’ (Feltrinelli) is coming out in May, and from Israel Eshkol Nevo who will talk with Francesco Piccolo starting from his last Legami novel with which the new Gramma brand is inaugurated. From Switzerland the super bestseller Joel Dicker with the new novel ‘A Wild Animal’ (The Ship of Theseus), topping the charts and from Spain Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett with ‘The Woman Who Runs’ (Sellerio) in which the beloved returns inspector Petra Delicado, immediately second among the best sellers ever. The Benini Salon, dedicated to ‘Imaginary Life’, will be the largest ever with a new pavilion of 5 thousand square meters and will give visitors the last chance to meet Don Winslow as a writer who has announced he will close with ‘City in ruins’ (HarperCollins), the last chapter of the trilogy that started with City on Fire, his career as a master of crime to dedicate himself to “fighting the return of Donald Trump” as he declared. The master of American noir James Ellroy arrives at the Salone with ‘Gli incantatori’ (Einaudi) in which we find Freddy Otash determined to solve the mystery of Marilyn Monroe’s death.
Also at the Lingotto was the first public meeting with Nicolas Barreau who, on the eve of the opening of the Salon, where he arrives with his latest novel ‘The Bride’s Friend’ (Feltrinelli), revealed his true identity: there is nothing behind the pseudonym an author but an author who comes from Germany, the German writer and author Daniela Thiele. Enormous the parterre of Italian authors from Gianrico Carofiglio to Silvia Avallone, from Eraldo Affinati to Maurizio De Giovanni, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Erri De Luca, from Dario Voltolini to Emanuele Trevi with among the most awaited Alessandro Baricco, who after the second marrow transplant , in the summer of 2023, due to the serious form of leukemia of which he announced the diagnosis on social media in January 2022, he is recovering from the disease and brings his latest novel to the stage with ‘Abel Concerto’, premiered at the Carignano Theater of Turin, on 13 May. Many anniversaries and memories, first of all the ‘Memory that brings, the memory that leaves’ Ernesto Ferrero, who died on 31 October 2023. Strega Prize-winning writer, literary critic, at the helm of the Turin Salon for almost 20 years, Ferrero will be honored by writer friends and traveling companions who will read the most loved pages in a meeting with Walter Barberis, Alessandro Barbero, Piero Bianucci, Chiara Fenoglio, Paolo Giordano, Paola Mastrocola, Melania G. Mazzucco and Domenico Scarpa, moderated by Stefano Salis. Among the tributes, the Lessons on the roof of the Salon also stand out, such as the one with Domenico Scarpa and Jasmine Trinca, dedicated to Natalia Ginzburg who is responsible for the title of this edition, ‘Imaginary Life’, taken from one of his lesser-known books.
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