It turns fifteen, it was 2009, and thirty consecutive editions, “without ever stopping: it’s a great birthday for a great celebration of ideas, of freedom of literature and of the curiosities of readers”. The greatest summer with authors in the shadow of the Dolomites is about to begin: opening the season in Cortina d’Ampezzo is A Mountain of Books, the international celebration of literature protagonist of the Queen of the Dolomites, which since 2009 has attracted an annual audience of 20 thousand visitors.
“We meet at the crossroads of literature, to understand more about the adventurous and dramatic times in which we live, with a thousand experiences around books, between excursions in nature, on the meadows, in the fresh air of the Alps. With some of the voices and pages most interesting in Italy, from Europe and from the world”, he says Francesco Chiamulera, festival manager.
A Mountain of Books is preparing to bring a record-breaking program to Cortina, with fifty meetings with the author across literature, current affairs, science and art, with many previews, unique dates and literary debuts. One event a day. The XXX Edition will be held from 13 July to 25 August 2024, and then in autumn.
To celebrate its first fifteen years A Mountain of Books celebrates the freedom of literature, in its ability to build an alternative dimension to reality, and to determine it. From the incredible meeting with Simon Sebag Montefiore, an award-winning British historian, who in Cortina, in the only, highly anticipated Italian date, will present the best seller “The world, a family history” (Mondadori), to the inauguration, Saturday 13 July, entrusted to the superb Ukrainian storyteller Katja Petrowskaja, author of “The photo was looking at me” (Adelphi), on the appointment with the great storyteller Eshkol Nevo who will present his collection of short stories “Legami” in Cortina (Feltrinelli Gramma), to the one with Alessandro Piperno, with the newly released novel “Aria di famiglia (Mondadori).
While Francesca Melandri, loved in the Dolomites for the publishing case “Eva sleeps”, will bring to Una Montagna di Libri, in Italian preview, the brand new novel “Piedi Freddi” (Bompiani), set between the Second World War and the Russian aggression on ‘Today’s Ukraine.
Sports and absolute mountain evenings, like the one with the mountaineer Tamara Lunger, who will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the K2 feat which led, among others, Lino Lacedelli from Ampezzo to the summit, in an evening in collaboration with Dolomiti Film Festival; and with climbers Kristin Harila and Alex Txikon.
Highly anticipated the prefiguration of the American elections conducted by the journalist Francesco Costa, like the conversation on the potential of the brain of the great neuroscientists Maurizio Corbetta and Antonio Cerasa. Together with the great Italian storytellers, such as Antonio Franchini, Emanuele Trevi, Michele Masneri, Federica Manzon.
The contents
But here are all the contents of the Summer 2024 edition. A Mountain of Books will browse the pages of Italian and world narrators of the caliber of Katja Petrowskaja, Eshkol Nevo, Francesca Melandri, Alessandro Piperno, Emanuele Trevi, Antonio Franchini, Federica Manzon, Michele Mari, Michele Masneri, Vanni Santoni, Mauro Corona, Marta Aidala, Giovanni Montanaro, Gianluca Nativo, Patrizia Laquidara, Matteo Righetto , Gian Arturo Ferrari, Gianni Dubbini Venier, Giovanni Fantoni Modena.
He will listen the voices of culture, science, the mountains, art as Simon Sebag Montefiore, Maurizio Corbetta, Antonio Cerasa, Tamara Lunger, Alex Txikon, Kristin Harila, Marco Mondini, Rachele Ferrario, Andrea di Robilant, Giuseppe Mendicino, Alessandro Marzo Magno, Camilla Baresani, Marina Valensise, Anna Sustersic, Tomaso Biancardi, Alessandro Caked.
He will ask absolute protagonists of information and journalismin particular regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such as Francesco Costa, Paolo Mieli, Francesca Fagnani, Bruno Vespa, Enrico Mentana, Eliana Liotta, Anna Prandoni, Salvatore Giannella, Luciano Ferraro, Giovanni Viafora, Alessandro Russello, Marisa Fumagalli, Venanzio Postiglione, Massimo Mamoli, Alessandra Tedesco, Paolo Cagnan, Alessandro Zangrando, Claudio Arrigoni, Marco Dibona.
He will bring it to the stage entertainment, cinema, music, sport, with Antonio Monda, Anton Giulio Onofri, Erica Giopp, Marco Ballestracci, Annina Pedrini, Paolo Valerio, Paolo Corsini. And again, Marco Berti, Cristiano Corazzari, Gianluca Lorenzi, Roberta Alverà, Leopoldo Destro, Alessandro Mezzena Lona, Michela Fregona, Giustina Mistrello Destro, Emanuela de Zanna, Vera Slepoj, Monica De Mattia, Paolo Maria Noseda, Sarah Cuminetti, Carla Toffolo, Gabriella Vanzan, Michele Uliana, Giovanna Melloni, Silvia Benazzi, and many others. The full program will be published on July 5th.
For the XXX Edition, A Mountain of Books has absolutely new features in store. As the Russian invasion continues, the festival will turn the spotlight on Ukraine, war, dissidence and resistance to totalitarianism, with a series of meetings.
In addition to the aforementioned Petrowskaja, A Mountain of Books will dedicate historical insights into Russian aggression and the Israel – Hamas conflict through the vision of Paolo Mieli, by Marco Mondini; will give the Cortina public a long series of special events, only in Cortina: in addition to Montefiore, the new novel by Michele Masneri, the Italian premiere of The Passenger Alpi, an issue entirely dedicated to the mountains; the Italian preview of the book just released in English “This Earthly Globe”, which Andrea di Robilant dedicated to the Venetian geographer Ramusio; the debut of the very young Marta Aidala with her debut novel, with a mountain theme, “La strangera” (Guanda); the brand new, ironic survival guide in Südtirol by Erica Giopp.
And then the points of view of Francesca Fagnani, Anna Prandoni, Enrico Mentana, Bruno Vespa. A Mountain of Books will welcome the overall winner of the Strega Prize, the finalists of the Campiello Prize, the winners of the Cortina Prize 2024, and will ask Salvatore Giannella for a portrait of Michele Ferrero, inaugurating a special collaboration with the Premio Valori d’Impresa. And then the homage to Italo Calvino, to whom the great reading marathon will be dedicated which will see one hundred readers take turns around the masterpiece “The halved viscount”; to Joseph Conrad, with the essay dedicated to him by Giuseppe Mendicino. At Una Montagna di Libri Giovanni Montanaro will talk about Marco Polo, Alessandro Marzo Magno about Casanova, Anton Giulio Onofri about Beethoven.
Where: the Festival locations
A Mountain of Books will take place in the public spaces of the Post Office Building and the Alexander Girardi Hall. And then at the historic Cortina hotel Grand Hotel Savoia, and at the Rinaldo Zardini Paleontological Museum. But A Mountain of Books is also #live, combining Twitter and Instagram with the interactive live broadcast of the meetings, via Facebook and YouTube.
All the names
Katja Petrowskaja Simon Sebag Montefiore Eshkol Nevo Francesca Melandri Alessandro Piperno Francesco Costa Antonio Franchini Tamara Lunger Emanuele Trevi Federica Manzon Paolo Mieli Michele Mari Michele Masneri Andrea di Robilant Anna Prandoni Antonio Cerasa Maurizio Corbetta Francesca Fagnani Vanni Santoni Marta Aidala Mauro Corona Alex Txikon Giovanni Montanaro Bruno Vespa Marco Mondini Gianluca Native Patrizia Laquidara Antonio Monda Salvatore Giannella Eliana Liotta Erica Giopp Rachele Ferrario Anton Giulio Onofri Camilla Baresani Matteo Righetto Alessandra Tedesco Luciano Ferraro Kristin Harila Marco Ballestracci Gian Arturo Ferrari Giovanni Fantoni Modena Gianni Dubbini Venier Leopoldo Destro Marco Berti Vittorio Piozzo Rosignano Giuseppe Mendicino Anna Sustersic Tomaso Biancardi Marina Valensise Venanzio Postiglione Giovanni Viafora Cristiano Corazzari Marisa Fumagalli Gianluca Lorenzi Alessandro Russello Alessandro Tortato Claudio Arrigoni Alessandro Mezzena Lona Giustina Mistrello Right Alessandro Marzo Magno Annina Pedrini Roberta Alverà Vera Slepoj Emanuela De Zanna Alessandro Zangrando Paolo Cagnan Monica De Mattia Paolo Maria Noseda Carla Toffolo Sarah Cuminetti Massimo Mamoli Gabriella Vanzan Sonia Folin Paolo Valerio Marco Dibona Giovanna Melloni Paolo Corsini Michela Fregona Michele Uliana Silvia Benazzi and many others
