Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne and Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney in collaboration with The University of Melbourne are proud to promote an event featuring Strega Prize-winning author Paolo Giordano, currently touring Australia to present his latest novel, Tasmania, on the occasion of the XXIV Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo (SLIM).
Published in 2022, this semi-autobiographical work delves into the fear, anxiety, wonder, and beauty of our uncertain and tumultuous times. It explores how we can forge and sustain relationships amidst the growing challenges of climate change and global conflict, even as connecting with others becomes increasingly difficult.
Author’s biography. Paolo Giordano is an acclaimed Italian writer, whose works explore complex themes such as human relationships, identity, and the intricacies of modern life. His literary journey began with the novel La solitudine dei numeri primi (The Solitude of Prime Numbers), which won the prestigious Premio Strega in 2008. Other works include Il corpo umano (The Human Body, 2012), an examination of soldiers returning from Afghanistan, Il nero e l’argento (Like Family, 2014), which delves into the complexities of a couple’s relationship, and Nel contagio (How Contagion Works, 2020), where Giordano reflects on societal challenges during the COVID pandemic.
Tasmania plot. There are times when everything changes. One thing happens, one clicks, and the river in which we have always been immersed takes off in another direction. We call it a crisis. The protagonist of this novel is a caring and vibrant young man; he thought science would provide him with all the answers, but he is faced with a wall of questions. With him are Lorenza who knows how to wait, Novelli who studies the shape of clouds, Karol who has found God where he was not looking for him, Curzia who is yearning, Giulio who does not know how to talk to his son. The crisis of which this novel tells is not only that of a couple, perhaps it is that of a generation, certainly the crisis of the world we know-and of our planet. The magic of Tasmania, the force with which it calls to us on every page, is the natural refraction between what is happening outside and inside us. So even the ghost of the atomic bomb, which the protagonist studies and reconstructs, becomes an exorcism: the apocalypse is in this struggling of ours, and in the uncontrollable movements of the heart. Picking up the baton of the great scientist writers of the Italian twentieth century, Paolo Giordano pushes into the most interesting territories of the European novel of these years, to land with happiness and lightness in a place of his own, where he can play with concealments and self-revelation, come to terms with his own demons and cross fear.
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