Ulysses, faced with the sight of his happy and forgetful companions on the island of the Lotophagi, reacts violently: he forcibly herds them onto the ship and compels them to resume their journey. “Let no one ever forget the past, their homeland and their native tongue!” “Reading this dazzling episode years ago filled me with such enthusiasm that I fell in love with Ulysses to the point of wanting to turn him into a musical work,” writes the composer

The former minister and M5S Senate group leader has stepped down from his posts to focus on his inner well-being: “Whilst younger people and women discuss mental health quite naturally, adult men do not seek an inner journey, and this is a serious issue because we live in an age of anguish, which is worse than anxiety.”

For the writer, happiness comes through the body: exercise, a smile, good manners and even a yawn can help keep the ills of the spirit at bay. Simone Weil’s mentor’s ironic and pragmatic remedy for melancholy, boredom and bad temper

A discussion on Vincenzo Latronico’s novel, a publishing success story that has had greater impact abroad than in Italy. A book permeated by the theme of uprooting, yet one that never descends into resignation