Mondadori

With a print run of 500,000 copies, Italy is the first country, outside the US and the UK, to publish the new novel by E L James.

After the success of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, with worldwide sales of over 125 million copies, in just 4 days, the new novel, GREY sold more than a million copies in the United States, beating all previous records.

Seen through the eyes of Christian Grey, his thoughts, reflections and dreams, E L James offers readers a new perspective of the love affair that has enthused millions of readers around the world.

Christian Grey loves to have control over everything: his world is ordered, methodical and entirely empty until the day that Anastasia Steele bursts into his office with her enchanting body and splendid chestnut hair. He tries to forget her, but is overwhelmed by an emotional storm that he can’t quite understand and is unable to resist.
Unlike all the other women that Christian has met before, the shy and ingenuous Ana seems to reach straight to his heart – a cold and injured heart – and see beyond the image of the successful businessman and his exclusive and luxurious lifestyle.
With Ana, will Christian be able to banish the nightmares of his childhood and the ghosts of his past that torment him every night? Or will his obscure sexual desires, his obsession with control and the self-hatred that fills his soul push Ana away and destroy the fragile hope that she offers him?

Find out, from 3 July with Grey.

From tomorrow changes to the organisational structure of the press office and events area of Edizioni Mondadori will come into effect, aimed at bringing product communication closer, on the one hand, to editorial development and, on the other, to marketing activities.

Changes largely determined by the so-called digital revolution have significantly reinstated the primacy of the author-publisher-reader relationship.

In line with the focus on content, regardless of the distribution platform, the role of communication needs to be reconsidered in order to ensure an ever-closer link with the publishing house.

Consequently, the head of the press office of Edizioni Mondadori, Francesca Gariazzo, will now report directly to the literary director Antonio Riccardi, who will also be responsible for the Rome office.

Promotional activities and events management – overseen by Nadia Focile – will become, like digital communication activities, part of the marketing department, headed by Giovanni Dutto.

“These organisational changes,” announced Riccardo Cavallero, the Mondadori Group’s general manager of Trade Books, “is a further demonstration of the innovative approach that characterises our publishing group and is ensuring an effective response to the new digital technologies”.

“I would like to thank Piera Cusani for the professionalism and grace with which she has managed the communication of books,” Cavallero continued, “and in the three years that we have worked together I have appreciated the enthusiasm the she brings to everything she does, from the day-to-day to the invention of the Anteprima Festival. I wish Piera every success in the future and I am sure that her team will be able to continue to work effectively along the lines that she has laid down over the years.”

XS is a new digital series from Mondadori of short texts by great authors, available exclusively in the ebook format.
A new, fast and direct way to read. New or preview content, fiction and non-fiction, by the best known and most appreciated authors, offering the reading public a guarantee of excellent quality. A small challenge for the ebook market: while there is no shortage of short books out there, the XS Mondadori series is characterised by the choice of authors, stories or subjects, and aims to become a sort of think tank, suggesting new ways of seeing, reading and dealing with reality.
Most of the texts are previously unpublished, but there will also be little known works or preview passages from forthcoming books.
The six launch titles in the series are a mix of these different approaches: two new works (Con Picasso incasso by Francesco Bonami and 2012 Ultime notizie dalla fine del mondo by Roberto Giacobbo), two that previously appeared in Nuovi Argomenti (Pastiche proustiano in salsa biancoceleste by Alessandro Piperno and Una suora siciliana by Dacia Maraini) and two teasers for upcoming titles (E adesso facciamo il cinematografo! by Francesco Rosi with Giuseppe Tornatore and Nashira, Nascita di una ribelle by Licia Troisi).
Low, really low prices: from 0.99 cents to €1.99. Available from all major e-book stores.

Francesco Bonami
Con Picasso incasso
The irreverent art critic explains the sensational, commercial and public success of Pablo Picasso.

Roberto Giacobbo
2012 Ultime notizie dalla fine del mondo
The author of the best-selling 2012 – la fine del mondo brings us up to date with the latest news about a date that gets closer and closer, and tells us how not to be afraid.

Alessandro Piperno
Pastiche proustiano in salsa biancoceleste
The tragicomic misadventures of a Lazio fan in Rome. From Proust to Cragnotti, the story of an obsession with hilarious moments and surprising reflections.

Dacia Maraini
Una suora siciliana
An impossible encounter between two women of different ages, in a Sicily caught between nostalgia for the past and hope for the future.

Francesco Rosi with Giuseppe Tornatore
E adesso facciamo il cinematografo
A preview of the book Io lo chiamo cinematografo. Extracts from the biography of a great film director, with never before published stories, such as his first time at the Venice Film Festival.

Licia Troisi
Nascita di una ribelle
The magical story of Eshar, set in the fantasy world of the I regni di Nashira saga (the second volume of which is due out in November).

To celebrate the redesign and relaunch of the SIS, Scrittori Italiani e Stranieri series, Mondadori has organised four special encounters, to be held at the Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, with some of the publishing house’s most important authors.

Taking the stage on 6 February will be Alessandro Piperno, on 27 February it will be the turn of Paolo Giordano, while on 5 March the guest will be Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This series of encounters will close with Margaret Mazzantini and David Grossman on 26 March.
Entry is free though limited to the capacity of the theatre.

After thirteen years, Mondadori is redesigning and relaunching the SIS, Scrittori Italiani e Stranieri series, the company’s most important fiction series that includes the great masters, new discoveries and the most fascinating and interesting voices of international literature.
Making a return of the covers of the titles from the Scrittori Italiani e Stranieri series is the noble and ancient symbol of the rose and a quotation from Dante “in su la cima” (right at the top), a symbol of patience and beauty that, since 1934 – when it appeared for the first time on the frontispiece of the Classici Italiani series – has characterised the books published by Edizioni Mondadori.

The Help, the debut novel by Kathryn Stockett (published in Italy by Mondadori), and a bestseller with sales of over 10 million copies around the world and over a million ebook downloads of Amazon, is coming to the big screen.

The film, which is on general release in Italy from 20 January, is a faithful account of the story told by Kathryn Stockett in her book.
At the beginning of the ’60s, in a small town in Mississipi, three extraordinary and completely different women join forces for a common project.
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, played in the film by Emma Stone, is a young graduate recently returned from college to live with her family who finds it hard to conform to the plan of married life prepared for her by her mother. She prefers to dedicate herself to her one big passion, writing.
Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), meanwhile, is a caring black maid who has, one after another, brought up seventeen white children and who has to face the loss of her own son, killed in an accident at work to the general indifference of the local mainly white community.
Minny (Octavia Spencer) is Aibileen’s best friend. Short, overweight and with a violent husband, despite being an excellent cook, she moves from family to family due to her inability to control her behaviour.
Despite marked social, cultural and character differences, the three women begin to work secretly on a book that will put them at great risk; a book that gives an account of the day to day life of black maids working for white families and based of the direct experience of the protagonists.

The film, which has already been a huge box office hit in the United States, received five nominations for the 2012 Golden Globe 2012, with Octavia Spencer win the award for best actress in a supporting role.

NumeriPrimi° is the new brand, launched on 25 March 2011 for the bestselling titles published by Mondadori, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme and Frassinelli.
This innovative project brings to bookstores, under a single brand, quality paperback editions of all of the bestselling titles of the Mondadori Group’s five publishing houses just a few months after their publication in hardcover, at advantageous prices and ahead of the paperback editions of the single imprints.

NumeriPrimi° will feature only successful titles published around 12 months for their first appearance in hardcover and is expected to produce 30-40 titles a year grouped in three different moments; with a single format, but different covers reflecting the original and at competitive prices of between €12 and €15; each title will be available under the new brand for around 18 months, before being definitively reallocated in the paperback catalogue of the original publishing house.

The new NumeriPrimi° brand is the result of collaboration between Mondadori and RobilantAssociati, Italy’s top brand design and strategy consultants, with a range of leading Italian companies among its clients.

With the definition of NumeriPrimi°, RobilantAssociati has identified, for the publishing sector, a response to a phenomenon already underway in other sectors: a demand for upscale products at more affordable prices, creating, along with the Group’s publishing houses, a new offer to add to the the market. Through its name and logo the new NumeriPrimi° brand will stand out and attract attention, exemplifying the values of success and accessibility that characterise the brand, while using an expressive and highly innovative and identifiable language.

The first 13 NumeriPrimi° titles, in bookstores from 25 March 2011 are:

John Grisham Ritorno a Ford County
Anne Holt La porta chiusa
Paolo Brosio A un passo dal baratro
Madeleine Wickham La compagna di scuola
Nicholas Sparks L’ultima canzone
Fabio Volo Il tempo che vorrei
Giancarlo De Cataldo Romanzo criminale
Dan Brown Il simbolo perduto
Mauro Corona Il canto delle manere
Fred Vargas Prima di morire addio
Clarissa Pinkola Estés Donne che corrono coi lupi
Alessandro D’Avenia Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue
Niccolò Ammaniti Che la festa cominci.

Wednesday 19 January – Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of Mondadori, and Pietro Citati, director of the Fondazione Valla, presented a copy of the new edition of The Koran, published in the Islamica series, to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

The Holy Father expressed his gratitude and expressed his approval for this cultural and religious initiative.

“I am extremely honoured that the Holy Father agreed to accept the gift of a copy of the Koran, just as in 2006 he received a special edition of the Bible,” explained Maurizio Costa. “For Mondadori this event is a further recognition of the company’s tradition as a publisher that is careful to give voice to the widest range of opinions and thoughts in respect of the plurality of ideas and values.”

“There have been few and unsatisfactory previous Italian translations and the commentaries were no better,” underlined Pietro Citati. “Now Italians can read the Koran and abandon themselves to its solemn and tumultuous wave. I think there will be many surprises.”

The text, edited by Alberto Ventura, is published in a completely new translation by Ida Zilio-Grandi, who teaches Arabic language and literature at the University of Venice. The work has been overseen with an indispensable linguistic competence which aims to render the Koran clear and comprehensible, in a modern Italian free of the kind of archaic forms that have typified the translations of ancient religious texts.

The extensive commentary, the richest and most complete ever written in a European language, is the work of an international group of scholars – in addition to Ida Zilio-Grandi, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Mohyiddin Yahia and Alberto Ventura – in an attempt to explain many of the difficulties and ambiguities in the text and to illuminate for the reader the meaning of each individual verse, the possible difference of interpretation and the stories to which reference is frequently made without sufficient background.

In recognition of the work of the much-loved poet Alda Merini, an offbeat and moving personality who was able to speak directly to people’s hearts, Mondadori is publishing the first anthology that brings together all of the poetry and prose of a leading protagonist of Italian twentieth century literature: Alda Merini, Il suono dell’ombra. Poesie e prose 1953-2009.

From the most intriguing, engaging and well-known of her masterpieces to forgotten pages, this collection is accompanied by an extensive critical and biographical appreciation by Ambrogio Borsani. The early collections of poetry, La presenza di Orfeo, Nozze Romane and Paura di Dio are collected for the first time and the book also includes the more recent and familiar collections, such as Vuoto d’amore, Superba è la notte and her last book, Il Carnevale della Croce, along with a number of rarities. Alongside the autobiographical L’altra verità and Lettere al dottor G., that give an account of a heartbreaking descent into the abyss of an asylum, also her complete short stories are included, from Il ladro Giuseppe to the lyrical sonatas of Delirio amoroso and Il tormento delle figure. A section of biting and highly amusing aphorisms, provide evidence of almost twenty years’ work. The book also features a small number of unpublished poems.

On 2 November, to commemorate Alda Merini a year after her death and to mark the publication of the anthology, Licia Maglietta will give a reading of some of the poet’s work at the Auditorium in Milan (Largo Mahler 1, at 6.30 pm – admittance free).

Canale Mussolini was chosen in the section dedicated to the historical novel in honour of the memory of the founder of the Prize, the writer Marcello Venturi.

The jury motivated the award as follows:

The novel is a fresh and invigorating reconstruction, characterised by an original stylistic and aware approach, that recounts the story of a family of colonists from the Veneto to the new towns established after the draining of the Pontine marshlands, over a number of generations. It paints a highly suggestive picture and manages to translate into a colourful daily language a authentic country saga laced with civic passions and dreams of social redemption against a backdrop of significant historical moment. Added to this is the pathos of personal memory – the author himself comes from a family of colonists – that is able to evoke the atmosphere and characters of events that have for some time been removed from a “politically correct” historical research.

The award ceremony will be held at the Teatro Ariston in Acqui Terme on Saturday 23 October at 5.30 pm, in the presence of the President of the Piedmont Region, Roberto Cota.

In addition to Antonio Pennacchi, during the event, which will be presented by Alessandro Cecchi Paone, prizes will also be presented to Alessandro Orsini, in the historical research category, for his book Anatomia delle Brigate rosse. Le radici ideologiche del terrorismo rivoluzionario (Rubbettino), Marco Patricelli, in the popular history category, for Il volontario (Laterza), and Folco Quilici in the “History on TV” category. The special prize “Testimone del tempo 2010” will be awarded to the Hon. Sandro Bondi, Vittorio Messori and Massimo Ranieri. While Ennio Di Nolfo will receive a Special Prize “for his career.”

In this novel Ken Follett tells the interrelated stories of five families (an American, a Russian, a German, an English and a Welsh) against the backdrop of the historic events that took place from 1911 to the First World War and the October Revolution. As in Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, Follett ably reconstructs a historical saga, weaving the events of big history into the smaller stories of protagonists that move, love, struggle and suffer against the background of the terrible events of the twentieth century. From the coal mines of Wales to the sparkling candelabra in sumptuous palaces, and from the corridors of politics to the alcoves of power, from Washington to St Petersburg, from London to Paris, the story moves incessantly between hidden dramas and international intrigues. The protagonists are rich aristocrats, the ambitious poor, courageous and strong-willed women, all of whom have to deal with war and the consequences of war.

Good and evil, love and hate, peace and war intertwine in this epic novel and are also graphically represented by two different covers, one white, one black.

Ken Follett is considered the world’s leading author of bestsellers and has sold more than 120 million copies, 18 million with Pillars of the Earth alone.

From 1 October, Sky Italia will broadcast the Ridley Scott-produced TV drama series based on Pillars of the Earth.