VENICE 2026Haven’t read Dracula? No problem – there’s an immersive audio experienceThe audiobook adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel was presented in Venice, featuring the voices of Riccardo Scamarcio and Benedetta Porcaroli, amongst others. With little narration and plenty of dialogue, Aurélie de Troyer, Head of International Content at Audible, speaks to Il Foglio byGiulio Silvano9 SEP 26
DECODER – Pop Culture AtlasThe Divine Comedy, coyotes, lawyers and katanasThree weekly recommendations for exploring comics, film and television, and games, to help you find your way through the vast universe of pop culture and the stories that are shaping the contemporary imagination. Today: ‘Inferno’ from Dante’s Divine Comedy, illustrated by Miguel Angel Martin; the film ‘Coyote vs. Acme’; and the video game ‘Onimusha: Way of the Sword’.byGianluca De Angelis8 SEP 26
The interviewWriting according to Ghosh: a profound form of attentionLiterature and the climate crisis. In his latest book, the Indian author explores ‘the parallel existence of multiple realities’. A conversationbyAntonio Monda7 SEP 26
MEGALOMANIA AND LIESIn the mind – and in the paranoia – of the autocratHe cannot lose, he cannot win: what will Putin do? A look at Stalin through Jung’s eyes and at Hitler’s willbyLuigi Zoja7 SEP 26
Children sent to the slaughterThe ideology behind the massacres of children and the crushing of compassionThe Nazis’ relentless persecution of very young Russians – all potential spies – the ‘Children’s Crusade’, and images from war zones. The only thing worse than seeing children murdered is seeing children as murderers. Like those in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.bySiegmund Ginzberg7 SEP 26
IL FOGLIO’S SUPPLEMENTSThe fatalistic bees and that knot of inexorable causality untangled by WallaceEinaudi has published the undergraduate thesis in which student David Foster Wallace refuted the conclusions of philosopher and beekeeper Richard Clyde Taylor. A passionate defence of human freedom that takes us to the heart of a career and a worldview byAlessandra Iadicicco7 SEP 26
MagazineThe Most Serene Rulers of SicilyScianna and Emma Dante with Buttafuoco in Venice: photography and theatre in a city whose history has never grown oldbyVittorio Bongiorno7 SEP 26
ODD FACESGiuseppe Culicchia: “The Italian version of ‘woke’ has only won over a select few”Author of a ‘dictionary of hypocrisies’ stemming from political correctness (‘E finsero felici e contenti’), the writer remains true to his ironic yet serious non-conformism: “Prudence would suggest observing developments over a longer period. If, however, we’re talking about ourselves, I don’t think the ‘woke’ movement has had much of an impact.”byFrancesco Palmieri6 SEP 26
Read with relishMax, Mischa and the wave of beautiful books that everyone’s talking aboutJohan Harstad’s latest novel, widely read and equally beloved, truly deserves its success. What can we learn from a literary phenomenon that is nothing but a cause for celebration?byMarco Archetti5 SEP 26
MagazineThe brigade of left-wing know-it-allsOnce, when it was Marxist, it saw itself as the guardian and custodian of the laws of history. Now, after history had taken a different turn, it began to see itself as the guardian and custodian of ethics and even aesthetics. From Luigi Pintor’s ‘plebs’ to Stefano Bonaccini. 1994: the horror of those who go to nightclubs and football grounds, and the revolt of the elitesbyPierluigi Battista5 SEP 26
