Sunday 5 May Franco Testore will present his latest novel in the Aliberti room of the Monticone Library, Napoleon on a bicyclepublished by Araba Fenice.
Franco Testore, originally from Canella, is an esteemed doctor, former head of oncology at the Asti hospital. Dedicated to volunteering and passionate about music, in 2005 he began writing and telling stories, using a pseudonym with his own initials for each work.
To tell the story of Napoleon, Testore uses his real name for the first time but the style does not change and remains recognizable in the continuous telling of stories of ordinary people that are intertwined with great history. Even the sensitivity remains the same, which manages to grasp the extraordinary and the profound humanity within apparently ordinary lives.
The plot originates from a true story, that of Napoleon, a Venetian laborer who in the mid-1930s, for political and personal reasons, decides to escape on his bicycle in search of new possibilities. Piedmont will be the destination, the promised land of a better, still very uncertain future.
Between strokes of luck, hardships, changes of residence, family reunions, wars and sorrows, Napoleon’s story represents a peasant epic that spans fifty years of Italian history.
The presentation of the book will be enriched by readings and ideas from the Canellase artist Giancarlo Ferraris who will dialogue with the author to give life to a conversation that promises to be creative and full of digressions.
So see you next Sunday in via GB Giuliani 29 at 5pmto learn about Napoleon’s story and reflect on the ever-changing and ever-new theme of the journey, a metaphor for life.
