«I like the Novara people from Novara». And the interview with Fabio Lagiannella, “bookseller of the year” 2024, could already end here due to the pride never satisfied with compliments of those who live under the Dome. But there is much more to listen to because for him, a Lombard from the province of Lecco, arriving in Novara was entering a community rather than a city, meeting people rather than entering new places.
What brought you to Novara?
«My father was a bookseller in Lecco and I worked for him a bit. Then, in 2008, I started a company with Roberto Lazzarelli, son of Ottavio and Matilde, to take over the family bookshop next to the Coccia. After a few years he left and I moved on and today the circuit has ten stores. But of all of them, this one from Novara is undoubtedly my favourite.”
Why?
«It’s a community: here I met interesting people from the cultural field but also common readers from whom I learned a lot. I don’t like asking for advice but when I do I rely on three people, two of whom are from Novara: the writer Marco Scardigli and Silvio Molina, a retired manager I met by chance in a bookshop. I really appreciate the people of Novara.”
It’s a rare statement to hear: why do you like them?
«They are complex, difficult to please but therefore stimulating, given that I love challenges and they don’t scare me, on the contrary. I got a lot from Novara from different points of view, first of all for the trust and credit received, even if there was a bit of mistrust at the beginning. Matilde Lazzarelli accompanied me through the transition and introduced me to everyone, perhaps even with a bit of initial skepticism but with great generosity and this was very important for me. Even the most difficult customers welcomed me.”
Do you mention any of them?
«I remember Maurizio Pagani, former minister and president of the Province, and then the psychiatrist Eugenio Borgna, an extraordinary client who gave himself a lot and I love listening to people. With the writer Sebastiano Vassalli, however, it didn’t start very well: I didn’t recognize him and I didn’t give him the treatment he was used to. They are people I would never have been able to meet anywhere else but here.”
Did you feel the burden of inheriting a traditional and much-loved bookshop?
«In reality, when I arrived, the bookshop wasn’t there at all: renovation work was underway and everything was reduced to a tent under the porticoes where I had brought some boxes of books from Lecco. I didn’t even have a computer and I wrote down the sales and returns in a notebook with colored sheets. It was a real beginning!
You first defined the bookshop as a “community”: why?
«When a customer asks you for a book, you as a bookseller are forced to get involved and give something of yourself that has touched you. If you do it seriously, the person perceives it and a bond is created that is confirmed every time. Now some customers from the early days are no longer there, others have arrived. The community is born by itself and is always renewed.”
Are kids part of it?
«Anyway, I’m the new book phenomenon. They read manga, romance and mystery and I’m very happy. To those who turn up their noses and make it a question of quality of writing, I say first of all that it is very important that children know how to find time to dedicate to reading in their day, as an alternative to the smartphone and everything else they may have. Then, sometimes, the person who is most polemical isn’t even a reader…”.
What is your favorite place in Novara?
«I lived for a few years in Vicolo della Canonica and it was beautiful: I had a small balcony with many plants in which, however, I had left a space with a view of the Duomo tower. Some neighbors were playing and I listened to music with that view: priceless. But my favorite place is and will always be the bookshop: when I arrive at the corner where it is located, many things come to mind that go beyond work: friendship, people like Marco Lazzarelli. It is a place full of my history and that of those who preceded me.”
The location is very suggestive next to a theatre: how do you experience it?
«I really like it and I would have liked the wall demolished in the foyer to have been ours and not that of the former Cannavacciuolo café! I love connections and crossbreeding in all its forms, cultural, social and personal. The best experiences come from encounters, the strongest human beings are born from crossbreeding.”
Let’s find a flaw in this Novara…
«Too many cars: if the center were closed to traffic, the city would benefit. I know, it’s strange to hear from a trader and I say it in a whisper.”
