Books

Mondadori will propose a large number of public events at this year’s of “Lucca Comics & Games”, the International Festival of Comics, animated film, illustration and games. From today, Thursday 31 October, until 3 November, fans can choose from a series of meetings with authors, presentations, previews and events at the Mondadori Comics Stand (Piazza Napoleone Pavilion E149 ) and the Mondadori-Games Stand(Carducci Pavilion A709 ) and at other festival locations.

Starting today, Thursday 31 October with a celebration of the great George R.R. Martin, an event dedicated to the Game of Thrones with a contest between cosplayers and highly qualified judges such as Sergio Altieri, Matteo Patané and Edward Stoppacciaro, and the screening of a key episode of the TV series broadcast on Sky, at 5.30 pm in the Auditorium San Girolamo.

Friday 1 November is a very full day: at the Mondadori-Comics Stand at 10 am Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo, creators of the celebrated Ken Parker, will reveal the details of the re-edition of the Lungo Fucile saga.

At 12 Cecilia Randall will present Millennio di fuoco together with Francesco Millennium Falcons. At 12 midday and at 5 pm, a double date with Gine, the designer of the unpublished Gli scudi di Marte, the twelfth volume of the series Historica. The day continues with a preview presentation of Prima, a new series of bimonthly Mondadori Comics: at 4 pm (and again on Saturday at 5 pm), a meeting with Robin Recht , one of the two extraordinary designers of Elric – il trono di rubino, the first volume of the saga.

And don’t miss at 4 pm, in the Auditorium San Girolamo, the long-awaited Chrysalide Roundtable, featuring Licia Troisi, Leonardo Patrignani, Emma Romero, Barbara Baraldi, Francesco Falconi and Vanni Santoni, with Sergio Altieri in the moderator’s chair.

The first event on Saturday 2 November is at 11.15 am in the Ingellis Hall, where Paolo Barbieri presents Apocalisse with Valerio Massimo Manfredi. At 2 pm there are two events: Valerio Massimo Manfredi presents My Name is Nobody: The Return at the Auditorium San Romano. While the spectacular Cosplay Hunger Games Parade (in partnership with Universal Pictures ) begins, starting from the MOV Area of the Praetorian Loggia in Piazza San Michele ending at the Mondadori-Games Stand. Almost at the same time, also on the Stand, the Cosplayer Hunger Games photo session will start.

And again on the Hunger Games theme, at the Universal stand the public may draw a ticket to win great Hunger Games prizes. While at 4 pm, on the Mondadori-Comics Stand, a special guest Hermann will be available to the public to sign copies of Bois Maury from the Historica series.

The grand finale of the day will take place at 4.30 pm, with the C&G Cosplayer Asterix event, on the Lucca stage: a surprise that should not be missed.

Sunday 3 November, the final day, begins with Vanni Santoni presenting Terra ignota, with Emanuele Manco of Fantasy Magazine, at 11.15am in the Ingellis Hall, and ends wonderfully with the presentation of I regni di Nashira. Il sacrificio by Licia Troisi accompanied by Sandrone Dazieri, at 2 pm in the Auditorium San Romano.

In addition, every day at the Mondadori-Comics Stand, you can browse and interact with Mondadori digital comics (Diabolik, Asterix, Lupo Alberto, Milo Manara, etc.) on the latest generation devices available to visitors.

Following the extraordinary success of the last edition, from 21 to 24 November sees the return of BOOKCITY MILANO 2013 an event sponsored by the Culture Department of the City of Milan and the organising committee of BookCity comprising the Rizzoli Corriere della Sera Foundation, the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation, the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation and the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan and AIE (Italian Publishers’ Association, with the support of ALI (Italian Booksellers Association), LIM (Independent Bookstores Milan) and AIB (Italian association of Librarians). For the second time the project benefits from a partnership with Eni and Intesa Sanpaolo, in addition to a contribution by the Cariplo Foundation and EXPO 2015, and the support of Generali, Swatch, Pan Image, FPE, Alessi, Comieco, Car2Go, Somma, as well as a large group of companies that have collaborated to the realisation of the initiative.

“The first edition of BOOKCITY MILANO confirmed the city’s position as the national capital of publishing, and highlighted the great passion of the Milanese for books and reading and enjoyed a success that has echoed across Italy,” said the Councillor for Culture Filippo Del Corno. “With this second edition, we want to further establish Milan’s vocation to read and enhance its artistic and entrepreneurial ability to innovate, creating and proposing paradigms for a new way of ‘doing culture’ in our country. Also this year’s edition will centre around the Castello Sforzesco, which for the occasion will present one of its most precious treasures: the Trivulziano Codex, the manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci, which will be on exhibition for the three days of BOOKCITY in MILAN in the castle’s Treasury. But this year the programme is branching out across even more of the city, spreading virally to a number of public and private spaces and reaching as far as the Rotonda in Via Besana along an ideal ‘Reading Street’ which will involve new spaces and new proposals. An appointment that will expand and extend across the city.

BOOKCITY MILANO is a collective project dedicated to books and reading featuring a full four-day programme of events with more locations and thematic poles than last year. The Castello Sforzesco will remain the beating heart of BookCity with meetings, readings and animation. Among the many new features will be the ‘Reading Street’, which starts from the castle and proceeds along via Dante (Piccolo Teatro Paolo Grassi), Piazza Cordusio, the Loggia dei Mercanti, Piazza Duomo, the University of Milan, the Sormani Library, and arriving at the Rotonda della Besana.

In addition to the 600 events planned at different spaces across the city, including libraries and bookstores, places for reading and books and unusual spaces, BOOKCITY MILANO 2013 will feature a range of special projects, some of which have been active for some time in the area, such as the articulated BookCity project for schools, involving 940 classes from 200 schools and offering workshops in publishing, ebooks, book trailers and editorial activities. There will also be other important events such as reading/therapy sessions at hospitals in Milan and reading and writing paths in the city’s prisons.

BOOKCITY MILAN will take place at a number of locations throughout the city, many of them providing a thematic focus for dialogue on specific issues: Acquario Civico (World City Forum), Arena Civica (Sport), the Sormani Library, the Grechetto Room, the Conference Room of the Palazzo Reale (book crafts), the Giuseppe Verdi Home for Ageing Musicians (Giuseppe Verdi), Fabbrica del Vapore (Design), the Rotonda della Besana (Children) the Adolfo Pini Foundation (Philosophy), Sesto San Giovanni – Villa Mylius (Work), the Institute for the Blind, Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Crafts (fiction and non-fiction), the Piero Portaluppi Foundation (Economics), the Museum of Natural History (Science), the Museum of the Risorgimento (History), the University of Milan, the State Archives (Justice), Palazzo Greppi (History – World War II), Castello Sforzesco – Sala della Balla (Poetry), Teatro Dal Verme (Music), Palazzo Morando (Noir and Fantasy), Palazzo Reale (American Autumn), Palazzo Serbelloni, the Ferré Foundation (Fashion), the cloister of the Piccolo Teatro Grassi and Teatro Franco Parenti (Theatre – Cinema – Entertainment), the Società Umanitaria (Food & cooking), Teatro Dal Verme (Music), Villa Necchi Campiglio (Green).

During BOOKCITY MILAN the city will also be host to a large number of initiatives dedicated to books and reading, in a reading marathon in the metro, reading groups from municipal libraries will fill the metro, along with in the clowns from the Associazione Culturale La Fabbrica dei Clown; talking streets, featuring an extraordinary company of actors, will propose a way of rediscovering the great Italian poets Ariosto, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Leopardi and Carducci in the streets that the city of Milan has named after them; tales of crime, murder and great mysteries will be “shouted” from newsstands around the city, while for Stories in taxis, writers in a number of taxis, in particular those of the Radio Taxi 4000, will read a few pages of their latest novels during the customer’s trip.

Exceptionally during BOOKCITY MILAN, from November 22 to December 1, at the Treasury of the Castello Sforzesco, the original Trivulziano Codex by Leonardo da Vinci will be on exhibition. The precious manuscript will be visible, and, virtually, also available thanks to a prototype for an interactive installation for the digital study of the Codex, a project that the City of Milan has promoted at the Trivulziana Library with the support of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Also at the Castle, Book Men will read and interpret a collective reading of love letters exchanged between figures from literature, art and culture, and the Torre del Carmine will be to open to the public, to host four daily readings programmed for Saturday and Sunday.

Plus guided tours of the Merlate (the castle wall and ramparts) and the Paroliamo initiative, a competition to find many words as possible from the many letters scattered in the middle of the courtyard, while the Castle will resound with poetry, literary fragments, sound effects for passers-by. A video-box will also be installed in the castle courtyards, where participants will be invited to leave a message and there will be a morning press round-up made by well-known journalists live in the BookCity café.

The animated ‘Talking streets’ will include a photographic exhibition with images of great writers in the windows of some of the most prestigious buildings, the Agora Expo space will host a workshop for research, exchange and innovation on one of the key issues for our life and the future of our planet: food. Expo 2015 will be at BookCity with a preview of some of the themes and projects of the upcoming Universal Exposition, which, from 1 May to 31 October 2015, will place Milan at the centre of the world. Inside the Castello Sforzesco there will be a dedicated space and a programme of meetings, workshops and games, for a foretaste of the great issues that will revolve around Expo 2015.

Also worthy of note: the Seat connection game, a treasure hunt played on the web, on smartphones, and in the city, a football tournament between writers, publishers, booksellers and librarians run by wuz.it with a particular formula for participation: the price of admission will be a book. The title you decide to donate, along with all those brought by the other spectators, will be made into a collection of books to be made available to schools in Milan.

Radio 2 and Radio 3 will be at BookCity with live coverage from the City of Milan’s Urban Centre.

Unless otherwise indicated, all the events of BOOKCITY MILAN are free with admission subject to availability.

web site: www.bookcitymilano.it | twitter: @BOOKCITYMILANO – # BCM13 | facebook: BookCity Milano

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.”

What’s the best way of explaining to the citizens of tomorrow – the children and adolescents of today – that they already have rights? How can we explain in a way suitable for them an issue that involves national and international law? Vincenzo Spadafora, the head of the Italian Authority for Children and Adolescents had the idea of asking for the assistance of Geronimo Stilton. The result is a special book Che avventura stratopica, Stilton! Alla scoperta dei diritti dei ragazzi, published by Piemme: a project of exceptional ethical and educational value that aims to explain the Authority’s activities.

The book was presented on 10 June at the Senate in Rome to mark the publication of the second annual report of the Authority for Children and Adolescents to the Speaker of the Senate Piero Grasso, the Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Luigi Di Maio, the Minster of Justice Annamaria Cancellieri as well, of course, to the guests present.

A special section of the book is dedicated to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989. It is a pull-out insert that can be removed and kept.

Che avventura stratopica, Stilton! Alla scoperta dei diritti dei ragazzi is a special edition, created for the Authority by Piemme. Anyone interested in having a free copy can apply to Autorità Garante per l’Infanzia e l’Adolescenza – via di Villa Ruffo, 6 – 00196 ROMA, write to segreteria@garanteinfanzia.org, or contact the Authority on its Facebook profile.

The fourth edition of “ANTEPRIME – Ti racconto il mio prossimo libro” will be held in Pietrasanta from 7 to 9 June 2013. The event, which is the result of cooperation between the municipality of Pietrasanta and the publishing houses Einaudi, Electa, Frassinelli, Mondadori, Netwon Compton, Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer.

From 6.30 pm until well into the night, in a range of different spaces in the centre of Pietrasanta Italian and foreign authors, both newcomers and established names, such as Novel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk will meet the public. This year the festival will be opened, on Friday 7 June, by an exceptional guest Dan Brown.

At the various spaces around Pietrasanta the authors will be accompanied by their editors. Some will give readings from new or even unpublished works, others will talk about the construction of their next book, all with a desire to satisfy the public demand to get a closer look at their favourite authors. Anteprime will also see the return of the now traditional appointment with poetry with a homage to Vittorio Sereni to mark the centenary of his birth. Much space will also be given to children and young readers: in addition to the children’s stories corner, a number of authors, including superstar Geronimo Stilton, will offer sneak peeks from upcoming books.

ANTEPRIME 2013 – information and program

The Umberto Veronesi Foundation and Geronimo Stilton are sharing a project of great ethical and educational value, aimed at building an awareness in children of the importance that scientific research has for all of us.

The initiative is being realised with the support of the publishing house Piemme, a leader in children’s fiction thanks to the ability to dialogue with children that distinguishes its catalogue, and which has enables it to become a reference point for parents attentive to the needs their children and teachers involved in stimulating a love of reading.

Thanks to his ability to handle even delicate and complex topics with charm and humour, bringing them within the reach of a child, Geronimo Stilton has written a book, The Strange Case of the Blue Pimples, which recounts a very special adventure, set in Topazia, where a strange outbreak of blue pimples pushes grandfather Torquato to turn to the famous doctor and researcher Prof. Toponesi, the Island of Mice’s alter ego of the eminent Professor Umberto Veronesi!

The story continues with the family Stilton on a visit to Professor’s highly modern scientific laboratories: this gives them an opportunity to explain to young readers the importance of safety rules, of how a team of researchers is composed and the significance of research protocols, with the help of explanatory boxes accompanying the text. And all of this with a view to popularizing science in a way that can be assimilated in the early years of life and which is crucial for the training of aware future adults, and using a language and approach suitable for the ages to which they are addressed.

With this book Geronimo Stilton and Edizioni Piemme support the research grants of the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi.

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).

In the centre of Milan, in Piazza Duomo, inside the Libreria Mondadori Multicenter, for a number of days Geronimo Stilton, the popular editor of the The Rodent’s Gazette, has been preparing a cheddarific (surprise for his young readers: in fact it will be possible to visit the house where he stays on his frequent visits to the city!

The space features the characteristic screaming yellow walls, which recall the house in New Mouse City and, as you enter on the left, you’ll find the relax corner, in which the fireplace stands out, and beside which is an armchair that invites you to take a seat and read from the pages of an exciting book …
In the study there is a desk, where you will see the typewriter that Grandpa William gave to Geronimo when he turned over the management of The Rodent’s Gazette to him.

On the walls there are maps of New Mouse City and Mouse Island, as well as the most important prizes won.
Continuing the tour, the young visitors will come to the kitchen with a wonderful stove.
And of course, a house like this wouldn’t be complete without a big bookcase!
The Geronimo Stilton house can be visited for free by everyone during the Multicenter Mondadori’s normal opening hours (every day, including Sundays, from 9am to 11pm).

Geronimo Stilton is an extraordinary publishing phenomenon that since 2000, the year in which the first books were published by Piemme, has spread from Italy across the world. Indeed, the character can now rightly be considered and authentic “classic” that is destined to live on and become increasingly popular.
Born in New Mouse City (Mouse Island), Geronimo Stilton is the Rattus Emeritus of Mousomorphic Literature and Neo-Ratonic Comparative Philosophy. He is the editor of The Rodent’s Gazette, Mouse Island’s leading and most popular newspaper. His book, which have been translated into 36 languages, have sold more than 23 million copies in Italy alone, and 74 million around the world.
His web site is: www.geronimostilton.com

Mondadori and Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company announced today from The London Book Fair that they have formed an international digital publishing partnership. Open Road will digitize, distribute and market english language versions of titles from Mondadori’s catalog starting with 50 ebooks. Mondadori is Open Road’s first foreign publishing partner and this announcement kicks off Open Road’s International Publishing Partner Program.

Jane Friedman cofounder and CEO of Open Road said: “The rise of digital publishing has made the world a smaller place and we are now able to quickly and efficiently publish translations of international books. Open Road is committed to working with international publishers to bring
works from foreign countries to a wider audience than they have ever had before. We are excited to build on the success we have enjoyed with our American partners and to start our international publishing program with Mondadori.”

“Thanks to the digital revolution,” said Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, “geographical barriers are falling and the publisher is increasingly becoming also the promoter of its authors, not only at the national level, but also internationally. To publish in English the works of our most prestigious Italian authors,” Costa continued, “is a source of pride and satisfaction for Mondadori. Thanks to our commitment to digital and our partnership with Open Road, we can finally offer our authors direct access to the biggest market in the world.”

Open Road will digitally market all of the titles in the partnership. The company will create original marketing videos that will be distributed through its online platform and syndicated to content partners.
This announcement takes Open Road’s publishing partners program global. Since its launch, Open Road has worked with a variety of American publishers including MysteriousPress.com, Pegasus Books and Albert Whitman & Company.

The ebooks will be on sale globally starting this summer from Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, BarnesandNoble.com, Google/IndieBound, Kobo Books,OverDrive, and the Sony Reader Store.

Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media. Open Road
has published ebooks from legendary authors including William Styron, Pat Conroy, Alice Walker, Jean Craighead George, Bette Greene, and Virginia Hamilton.

The Mondadori Group is among the most important publishing houses in Europe and is Italy’s biggest publisher of books through its publishing houses Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer. Its wide-ranging production covers all market segments, including the ebook market.