Analysing the most recent best-selling novels in Italy, Walter Siti notes the disappearance of the ‘problematic individual’ identified by György Lukács as the hero of the modern novel. Contemporary Italian fiction only sells if it demonstrates a clear distinction between good and bad characters and provides a continuous, explicit explanation of every implication.   

It is not exactly a house move; it is a clear-out. Phase one in emptying an old house. Before tackling the furniture, we need to get rid of the dead weight: fifty years’ worth of dusty bits and bobs

Lermontov, too, met the same fate as Pushkin and died in a duel that many believed to have been ‘orchestrated at the very top’. It is a terrible story of a country that cannot protect its poets, and also of those who, like us, forget them

A review of John Steinbeck’s book, published by Bompiani, 112 pp., 12 euros

A review of Giovanni Testori’s book, published by Il Saggiatore, 110 pp., 14 euros

A review of the book by Francesca Pilato, published by Florestano Edizioni, 88 pp., 18 euros

A review of Edwidge Danticat’s book, published by Utopia, 224 pp., 19 euros

A review of Ilona Wisniewska’s book, published by Iperborea, 288 pp., 20 euros

In the east, a day spent reading books earns you eighty cents; in the west, a quarter of an hour’s sleep earns you five dollars. I briefly toyed with the idea of moving to Singapore, only to then reconsider Pennsylvania 

Beyond beauty and music. Impressions of Milan in early autumn: a ship in celebration that fails to see the iceberg ahead of its bow