Reading changes our lives: both while we're reading, and after we've finished a book we feel a bit different, a bit grown-up. For this reason, literature is one of our biggest passions and we want to tell you about it with the help of some books we have chosen for you today. In the gallery you can see pictures of their covers and their colours - another thing we find as irresistible as the smell of paper.
Life When It Was Ours, by Marian Izaguirre, Sperling&Kupfer
This novel with such a beautiful title talks about the magic of getting lost in stories. It is set in the 1950s in a post-Civil War Madrid. A second hand bookshop acts as background for a very delicate story, a celebration of friendship, complicity between women, and the power of literature.
The Attachment, by Florence Noiville, Garzanti
This novel is about the undying bond there is between love and writing, but it is also a timeless dialogue between a mother and her daughter in form of a letter, where the words give a new light to LOVE's essence itself.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo, Giunti
It's a fairytale for children that will also charm their parents. This book's pages hold the secret of life very carefully, and they reveal it little by little, as you can see in the title page: “If you open you heart, someone will come. Someone will come for you. But you have to open your heart first.”
Making Peace With The Earth, by Vandana Shiva, Saggi Universale Economica Feltrinelli
Vandana Shiva is a well-known Indian environmental activist and member of Earth Democracy. In this book Shiva takes the stock of the situation and evaluates the battles that got worldwide recognition also thanks to her input like, for example, the fight against the privatization of natural resources, the fight against patents on the living beings, and the use of GMO in agriculture. All these battles are nothing but a political, economical and cultural project in order to reach Earth Democracy.
The Black Book of Colors, by Menena Cottin and Rosaria Faria, Gallucci
The Black Book of Colors is a glimpse on a world where people can see with the touch, the hearing, the sense of smell, and with the help of blind people who have learnt to live in the darkness. This work is a tactile book by two Venezuelan authors of books for children, which manages to give an idea of the shape, the richness and complexity of the world as it is perceived by those who don't use their eyes to 'see'. With this book you will know what Tommaso (a blind kid) thinks, and how – even though he had to give up colours – his reality is rich of smells, sounds and shapes.
Piano Stories, by Felisberto Hernandez, La Nuova Frontiera
Loved by Calvino, García Márquez, Cortázar and Onetti, Felisberto Hernandez is a writer who defies all classifications. In this new collection we find, after many years, 'The Daisy Dolls' (1949), his longest and most famous work. The protagonist, an elegant man who lives in a big black house, has an eccentric passion for dolls, that he arranges every night in order to recreate a sort of tableau vivant. One day, scared that his wife is going to die, he makes a doll with her same features and appearance: Hortensia. Little by little the perception the protagonist has of Hortensia changes, and their once innocent relationship evolves until the doll is more and more human, and the man is more of a puppet with every day that goes by.
The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, by Jerome K. Jerome, Mattioli, 1885
A collection of idle thoughts on the preparation of love potions, on the maternal instinct in men, on the danger that hides in other people's advice, and on the pleasures that we can find in our daily work. This book is hilarious and meditative at the same time, and we can see Jerome K. Jerome's style and humour at its finest.
Make yourselves comfortable, open your book and... get ready for a new journey: enjoy the read!
DD