In conversation with Alessandro Gallenzi (Alma Classics, London) and Michael Heyward (Text Publishing, Melbourne).
Alessandro Gallenzi is the founder of Hesperus Press, Alma Books and Alma Classics, and the successor of John Calder at the helm of Calder Publications. As well as being a literary publisher with fifteen years of experience, he is a translator, a poet, a playwright and a novelist. His collection of poetry Modern Bestiary – Ars Poetastrica was published in 2005 to critical acclaim. His satirical novel, Bestseller, was published in 2010, followed by InterRail in 2012 and The Tower in 2014. His verse translation of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock won the Premio Biblioteca di Monselice special award in 2010. He lives in Richmond UK with his wife and two children.
A MODER BESTIARY – ARS POETASTRICA (2005)
A collection of sixteen sonnets about humans who are transformed into beasts (both real and imaginary), and vice versa, A Modern Bestiary is a new interpretation of the old bestiary tradition, which has fascinated generations of readers and writers alike, from the Middle Ages through to the Modern Age.
A fierce invective against modern poetasters and bad poetry in general, Ars Poetastrica does not pretend to be a collection of precepts on good writing but rather an impassioned exhortation towards a new Humanism in poetry.
BESTSELLER (2010)
Jim Talbot, a writer with a dozen unpublished novels under his belt, has been roundly rejected by virtually every agent and publisher in the land, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to make his dream of literary stardom come true. Charles Randall, the eccentric founder and managing director of Tetragon Press, a small independent publisher that has managed to survive for thirty years in a fierce publishing environment dominated by corporate juggernauts, is about to be brutally sacked by a newly appointed business consultant. Inevitably, and calamitously, Charles and Jim’s paths are about to collide.
A novel of intrigue, deceit and sheer desperation, Bestseller is a caustic portrait of contemporary culture and of Britain’s obsession with fame, success and becoming the next J.K. Rowling.
INTERRAIL (2012)
When Francesco decides to embark on his first trip outside his native Italy, he leaves behind a difficult relationship with his father, the narrow vistas of a small provincial town and the stifling atmosphere of a country he feels has become degraded. All he brings with him are a change of clothes, a map of Europe and the desire to discover new places, new people and, perhaps, a new life. But a chance encounter in Munich takes him off course, on an incredible journey that will see him fall in love in Sweden, lose all his money in Amsterdam, sleep rough in London, win big in Monte Carlo and get caught up in an international imbroglio.
THE TOWER (2014)
Amman, Jordan. As an ambitious digitization project gathers pace in a vast building outside Amman, some unpublished writings by Giordano Bruno – flawed genius of the late Renaissance, renegade philosopher, occultist with a prodigious memory – disappear together with the Jesuit priest sent by the Vatican to study them.
When the priest is found dead and a series of mysterious threats ensues, it becomes clear that the stakes are high for all the parties openly or covertly involved. What dangerous ideas were contained in the stolen manuscripts? What was the ultimate secret that Bruno tried to hide from the Holy Inquisition, even as he was persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and finally burnt alive in Rome?
In this riveting, meticulously researched new novel, Alessandro Gallenzi draws on his experience as a publisher in the digital era and casts a light on the darker side of our modern technological world, while revealing how a well-kept secret can change the course of history for ever.
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