An incredible new book is coming out, a novel and a poetic work with photographic illustrations of an extraordinary Calabria all together: it is the last work of a dynamic, magnetic, highly original trilogy of authors, Raffaele Donato, poet, Angelica Artemisia Pedatella , author and performer, Lorenzo Cardamone, photographer.
Vers-Ithacafor Giacovelli editore (2024), undermines every definitive cliché on the contemporaneity of mythology and exactly deciphers the Homeric myth in a contemporary key.
«It is an impressive opportunity to rediscover Calabria with an unexpected interpretation even for me – explains Angelica Artemisia Pedatella – In this three-way journey I put myself in Arianna’s shoes to relive her world with her eyes, which we call ” myth” but which for her was and remains absolutely contemporary. Thus I discovered once again the contemporaneity of Homer’s work that I had already explored with my immersion in the Iliad.
Ulysses taught me what it means to “return home” to know who you are.” With the unmistakable style that characterizes the three authors, the book focuses on the main passages of the Odyssey to explore the events and thoughts of the protagonists who dive through poetry into the sensations of contemporaneity, immersed in the photographic atmospheres of an ancient and wild Calabria that winks at those who think they have already defined it.
The photographic choice that accompanies the various chapters in which the novel-poem unfolds is particularly significant. Captions full of teaching accompany the images. «The myth enters my life in a natural way – explains Raffaele Donato – thanks to the unique stories that were my grandfather’s. And then everything that surrounded me has always been myth. On the other hand, I was born in Calabria! Rediscovering the myth was a necessity in my journey.”
The work will be present at the Turin Book Fair and will begin its narrative journey throughout Italy from May. «I dedicated this book to travelers like me – concludes Lorenzo Cardamone – because this was truly a “mythical” journey. I am proud to not be among those who chose to leave to find their future. I thus had the opportunity to see firsthand my dream of Calabria fully unfold.”
The work consists of twenty-four chapters with as many contemporary poetic portraits of Homeric heroes and images of the most iconic and mysterious places in Calabria. A return journey, a landing place, a story lived in the places of the roots, “Vers-Ithaca” has a multifaceted, very light, magnetic writing, capable of reaching a vast audience, with a refined palate and in search of intense emotions.
The intertwining of myth and reality becomes a poetic material that is already preparing to collect experiences, encounters, attentions, as is the destiny of every experimental book that navigates the sea that connects the past to the present of our Western civilization.
Further information on the book and the authors can be consulted via the following links:
https://www.giacovellieditore.com/product-author/raffaele-donato/
https://www.giacovellieditore.com/product-author/angelica-artemisia-pedatella/
https://www.giacovellieditore.com/product-author/lorenzo-cardamone/
