"Writing is what I do best"

Sandro Veronesi is one of the most appreciated Italian writers of his generation. Two-time winner of the Premio Strega (Quiet Chaos, and The Hummingbird), his work explores a series of themes which can be considered a real “geography”.

His latest book, Caducità (Transience), instead dives into unknown territory, exploring his own production and piecing together a collection of short stories, from his first works, written in his twenties, and some unpublisehd novellas.

Despite the heavy rain that hit Mantova during the festival, Palazzo San Sebastiano was filled with people eager to listen to him.

Veronesi, alone on the stage, brilliantly performed a reading of three of his short stories: Polmone (Lung), Agenda (Diary) and Vitamina (Vitamin).

Three stories, three different approaches, yet linked by common autobiographical ground: “I never used autobiography in my novels, but apparently I couldn’t escape from it. It just emerged in my short stories”.

Polmone is the first, and most emotional piece: the author recalls his mother’s death, using subtle irony to exorcise the suffering for this loss.

“Death is a simple thing: you breathe, and breathe, and breathe, and then nothing”. But that nothing can’t really hide the pain.

In Agenda, an object, a planner which lived in his parents’ house for more than thirty years, becomes a powerful symbol of what happens when time passes by: it sits there, “a museum of [their] privacy”, keeping secrets and storing memories. And when the story comes to a close, and the “agenda” is thrown away, the audience is left with a bittersweet feeling.

Finally, Vitamina, the most fun and ironic of the short stories: a young Sandro and his passion for tennis, the pathetic story of a match that was almost won.

Irony, wit and perfect timing make live reading the perfect way to experience these stories, that seem to open a slight crack into Veronesi’s inner life. It’s always impossible to know how much autobiography is autobiographical, and yet these stories sound extremely real.

Sandro Veronesi proves to be not only an excellent author, but a powerful, effective reader: the audience follows, attentive and engaged, reacting and laughing, and when the last story comes to a close, applause thunders.