FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2017
les, terial obstac a m l l a e m o ept c r ged to ove ttainable exc a n u s a w g n i And so I mana h ere not lf a space wh e s y m r s the woods. o a f w g e n c i a p s winn t a h T woods. for infinity. child of the a s a w I . s d the woo I grew up in
THE GREAT JUMP Vanni Oddera Ponte alle Grazie, October 2017 170 pages
A wild, gawky child who prefers the company of animals to that of his peers. A special bond with his grandfather - his teacher and accomplice - and a profound relationship with the woods, the only place where he finds freedom and harmony. A «wild life» from childhood and adolescence onwards, in constant search of a frontier to cross, a rule to break. This is Vanni and this is his great dream: to jump the obstacle, to fill the unbearable void we all have inside us. His is a life of headlong leaps and tragic falls, yet one in which he has always picked himself up again, inspired by a courage and an energy that reach beyond all limits. And this is his eventful and moving story. Vanni Oddera, world free-style champion, is not only the hero of daring feats in the saddle of his bike, but a sincere person who is not ashamed of his own faults and excesses and is capable of devoting himself to others with enormous generosity: it’s the «drug of love for the world», the joy of bringing the gift of the «wind in your hair» to someone who’s never experienced a similar euphoria. The lonely, difficult child won his personal battle, clearing away all the barriers and wiping out fear. And he’s never stopped flying since.
Vanni Oddera was born in 1980 in Pontinvrea, a town between Genoa and Savona. He didn’t do well at school, preferring to run off and play in the woods, where he met his first friend, the wild boar, Scheggia. He dreamt of owning a motorbike and bought one with his first pay packet, thereby changing his whole life. In only a short space of time, he became a champion of Freestyle Motocross and from 2009 onwards, he started to share his great passion by means of mototherapy, exhibitions of acrobatic prowess on a motorbike, where disabled children, those with physical disabilities or oncological diseases and wheelchair users can experience the thrill of sharing the saddle with a champion. A project that aims to bring emotions and adrenalin to those who seem destined never to experience them. This book tells his story.
You jump alone and you’re just dreaming, you jump together and it’s life coming true.
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the path w o l l o F . u o e is about y m f o reating: k c o o f b o e y o Th j e h t ,rediscover u o y s w o h s t erience. i p x e e u q i n u it will be a
THE BOOK OF ME Rosy Mercurio Vallardi, September 2017 Pages 160
A creative diary to find the path towards happiness The BOM is more than just a book. It’s a diary, a friend, a travelling companion; it’s a compass to guide you on your path towards happiness! It’s a safe place full of lovely things, where your child spirit – in other words the part of you that is nurtured by creativity – will finally be allowed to run free; it’s the room of your own you were always waiting for, where you can take refuge, to stock up on creative energy and set sail full speed again towards your objectives! Follow the route the BOM shows you and document your journey to freedom. At last you’re going to learn to free yourself of the fear and prejudices that hinder you… and live your creativity to the full!
Rosy Mercurio lives in the province of Caserta with her husband, her two daughters and a white cat called Miciola. After two university degrees and an experimental thesis on scrapbooking as a form of autobiography, she transformed scrap into a way of life, narrating the events in her life in snapshots. Her project «Book of me» came into being online and is now a book that begins on paper and continues on the web.
«Illuminating, versatile and full of surprises, the Book of me takes you on a journey through a colourful world full of joy and emotion. Every page added something to my self-awareness, my abilities and my desires. I didn’t imagine it was so easy and enjoyable to complete the little tasks, or that it could give me so much satisfaction. But this, after all, is the secret of happiness.» Cristina Caboni
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r knew that you neve k o o b e h t k. s s er knew to as stumble acro v e u n o y u o n y a c t a , h p t o stions In the booksh ng. r all the que e w s n a l it by searchi l i d w n i t f a h t t o n , n d a e c t you you wan waiting, but It is there, it by chance. You must find
THE BINDER OF LOST STORIES Cristina Caboni Garzanti, October 2017 Pages 300
Success after success, Cristina Caboni has become one of the most beloved Italian women writers by the press and by readers. Following The Secret Ways of Perfume, The Secret Language of Honey and The Garden of Secret Flowers, bestsellers that continue to remain in the lists, here is a new novel about the power of books. Thanks to which two courageous women, separated by time, meet and become each other’s mutual strength in their search for freedom and a better future. The finely worked cover embraces pages yellowed with time. With her delicate, expert touch, Sofia handles the leather and the paper gently, as she restores the book to its antique splendour. Bookbinding is her passion. The only way she manages not to dwell on her life slipping through her hands day by day. When the time comes to work on the counterguard, Sofia suddenly catches her breath: inside a surprise is hidden. A handwritten page is concealed there: it contains the story of a woman, Clarice, an art- and book-lover. A skilled bookbinder who lived in the early Eighteen Hundreds, when the profession was banned to women. A woman who fought for her independence. By the faltering light of a candle she had entrusted the book with a message launched into the sea of time and a challenge that may lead the person who takes it up to an extraordinary find. Sofia can hardly believe the treasure she is holding in her hands. This woman seems to be speaking straight to her heart and to her betrayed desires. She is determined to find out who the woman is and about her hidden secret. Helping her shed light on this mystery is Tommaso Leoni, a famous hunter of antique books and a graphology expert. Together they follow the clues they come across page by page, line by line, town after town. It is books that choose us and this book has chosen Sofia. After over two hundred years, only she can give Clarice back her voice. And only Clarice’s story can give back to Sofia the hope she has lost. Because the path towards a woman’s freedom is filled with obstacles but one must never stop looking towards the horizon.
option publishers: Germany (Blanvalet) France (Presses de la Citè) Inghilterra (Transworld) USA (Berkley) Spain (Ediciones Maeva) Netherlands (Xander Uitvegers) Slovakia (Fortuna Libri) Albania (Dituria) Lithuania (Alma Littera) Greece (Psichogios Publications) Hungary (Park Kiado) Sweden (Massolit) Romania (Nemira) Bulgaria (Bard Publishers) Serbia (Laguna) Poland (Muza) Brasile (Objetiva) Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga) Catalonia (Edicions 62) Croatia (Fokus) Israel (Keter Books) Russia (AST) Portugal (Suma de Letras) Latvia (Zvaigzne Publishers) Turkey (Dogan Egmont) Czech Republic (Jota)
Cristina Caboni lives with her husband and three children in the province of Cagliari, where she looks after the family bee-keeping business. She is the author of the novels The Secret Ways of Perfume – a world bestseller adored by readers and the press alike, which reached the top of the bestseller lists in Italy and abroad – The Keeper of Bees and Honey and The Garden of Secret Flowers, Selezione Bancarella Award 2017.
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hood. r e h t a f t a htful look g i l e d d n a A charming Weekly Publishers
THEIR DREAMS ARE BLAMELESS Letter to us parents about school Matteo Bussola Einaudi, October 2017 110 pages
When did we stop trusting the teachers and start living the lives of our children? Sometimes, being a parent means taking a step backwards. Matteo Bussola has three daughters, he takes them to school, checks they do their homework, talks to other parents and takes part in the class’s WhatsApp chat. To sum up, he has a privileged lookout point on the school. So he can bear witness to the fact that, when faced with a bad mark, parents often feel personally called into question and their only answer is to deny the teacher’s authority. This is why he has decided to write to himself, and to the other parents, to try and reflect on the fears and feelings of guilt hidden behind the lack of confidence in the school. A book of stories – his own, but also those of the mothers and fathers he sees, his own mother, who used to be a teacher, and his teacher friends – giving an account of our times and of our children. About how, without realizing it, we often overshadow them to prevent them from taking a tumble. But there is no growth without crisis and only by standing aside, whilst still being ready to pick them up if they fall, can we help them to become adults. From the first day of school onwards, when mums and dads, grandparents and siblings accompany the child right into the classroom en masse, with the camera clicking away as if it were a Rolling Stones concert, to recommendations about the food – everyone knows that Parmesan cheese has to be left a full 38 months to mature – lice, which regularly infest the pupils’ heads each year, giving rise to anxiety and suspicions, the survival kit for the school trip, which contains virtually everything except a satellite GPS. Matteo Bussola paints an amused and utterly serious portrait of today’s schools, comparing them to those that existed when he was a kid. And he wonders why we’ve stopped considering them places where you learn respect for yourself and for others. In the warm and familiar tone that is now his unmistakable mark, taking an attentive look at every story he comes across, he starts out from his own experience to write a letter to us all, getting to the heart of our fear. The fear of «letting our children go into the world and allowing them to make their way, step by step, without us.»
Matteo Bussola In his past life he was an architect. At the age of thirty-five he decided everything would change. Today he is father to Virginia, Ginevra and Melania and draws cartoons for a living. When he has ink to spare, he writes. He has a Facebook profile read by thousand of people, where he has been publishing stories, reflections and short accounts of family life for some yeas now. In 2016 Einaudi Stile Libero published his first book, Sleepless nights and kisses for breakfast, and in 2017 will be publishing his second book, Their dreams are blameless.
option publishers: Germany (Penguin Verlag) France (Editions Kero) Spain (Aguilar) USA (TarcherPerigee)
«A charming and delightful look at fatherhood.» Publishers Weekly «Richards’s translation reads well, as neither American nor British English but as Italian English, if there is such a thing. Verdict: a perfect summer read that will allow parents, dads especially, to reflect upon their own experiences raising children.» Library Journal starred review «Bussola has written a heartwarming collection of vignettes about his cosmopolitan life in Verona, Italy, with his wife and three young daughters. What started out as a Facebook journaling project has turned into a best-selling book in Italy. The storytelling skills he’s honed as a successful cartoonist are aptly put to use in this newly translated memoir.» Booklist «Sweet… Charming, ‘near-daily snapshots’ of fatherhood.» Kirkus Reviews
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GIADA SUNDAS
Le mamme ribelli non hanno paura
hood and love, r e h t o m t u o romanzo b a A joyful tale eep us alive. k t a h t s t c a s iou seller list. t and the rebell s e b e h t f o p the to Immediately at
REBEL MOTHERS FEAR NOTHING Giada Sundas Garzanti, May 2017
There were days when I made a plan of action the evening before, others when I pulled you out of bed yelling, improvised breakfast from left-overs found in the car and washed your face in the street fountain outside school. As soon as she felt a tiny heart start to beat inside her, Giada started to be a mother. But not until she held that life in her arms did it really exist. The moment before, Giada was one person - the moment after, another, and forever. Mothers are reborn. From that moment onwards she studied all the baby books on the market and listened to all sorts of advice. So that Mya, her most precious gift, would be safe, protected, loved. Yet things didn’t always go as described in the books, or in the way she had been told. And that was when she discovered a great truth: there are no unbreakable rules, laws, dogmas. You learn the job of being a mother day by day, on the spot, in between a lullaby filled with words of affection, and regurgitated food that leaves a stain on your T-shirt for days on end. Between an unexpected hug that transforms your day and a cartoon you can’t stand because you’ve learned itby heart. There’s not “a way”, the answers are inside every mother, deep down there, where instinct lives. Where the most unconditional love you can ever experience lives and grows. Where there’s no need to consult an encyclopaedia to know what you should or shouldn’t do. Imperfection is the only truth. The soft feel of a dribbly kiss, the beauty of a ponytail that won’t stay straight. The rebellion of choosing one sock a different colour from the other. These are the little pieces of magic that make a happy child. Because only by not following the rules do you find the courage to be the mother you choose to be. A début that is rooted in real life and goes straight to the heart. A gift for a little, two-year-old girl, so that one day she’ll be able to find out how she came into the world, what love, mistakes and choices lay behind it all. A story about motherhood, the real sort that you build step after step, one effort after another, one piece of happiness after another.
Giada Sundas is a natural storyteller, she has the rare ability to take you from laughter to tears in the space of a few lines. A book about how becoming responsible for another life means becoming responsible for our own, as well. Matteo Bussola, author of Sleepless Nights and Kisses for Breakfast, Einaudi
Giada Sundas does many different things in life, all badly, especially being a mother. She has a passion for words, for the magic that comes from the jigsaw of letters building poetry. She reads five hours a day, writes for six, sleeps for three and in the time remaining defrosts Cordon Bleus in the microwave. She dreams of making a living from writing but being thin wouldn’t be bad, either.
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Sixteen years. ng children. i s s i m o w t y t r Thi Then silence. Now he’s back.
I WON’T HURT YOU Paola Barbato Edizioni Piemme, June 2017
He’d got into the monster’s car because he’d told him that sooner or later the bogeyman would come and take him away. And it didn’t matter much if this monster wasn’t big and strong with a beard like Mangiafuoco’s but a thin boy almost the same size as him, with a rather shapeless red T-shirt and jeans that hung low on his hips. He was convinced he deserved to be taken away, and probably eaten alive, too, he expected nothing more. It’s 1983, and little Remo has spent most of his young life on his own, his parents always too busy to be with him. So when a mysterious stranger pulls up and asks Remo to help him take care of his baby sparrow, the kid doesn’t hesitate for a moment. Growing up in the streets, there’s no such thing as a stranger. Remo spends three whole days in the company of the man; back home safe and happy, recounting the experience ecstatically, he tells of the presents, and the attentions, which he’d never gotten from any other adult ever before. But Remo’s not the first one, nor is will he be the last. Thirty-two children over the course of sixteen years told similar stories of a blond man with a blue car. All of them disappear for three days, and go back to their families unharmed, telling stories of a man who does all he can to make their dreams come true. When the police start to investigate these momentary kidnappings, the man disappears.
option publishers: France (Denoel)
2015. Greta’s dad has never been late picking her up. But the dismay in her teacher’s eyes tells him that something’s wrong, because Greta hasn’t even set foot in school that day. This is how Remo Polimanti’s daughter disappears, just as he had thirty years previously. She, too, is returned to her family, but lifeless. Greta is just the first step on a blood-soaked path connecting the children of those who had been kidnapped years before. But why has the “good” kidnapper turned into a murderer? Or is someone copying him, perhaps? Or challenging him? Or punishing him? In a disturbing and tormented dance of light and shadows, Paola Barbati leads us into the depths of our greatest fears, making old, unhealed wounds bleed again.
Paola Barbato was born and bred in Milan, then adopted by Brescia, and is now on loan to Verona, where she lives with her partner, three daughters and three dogs. She writes scripts for the renown italian comic strip Dylan Dog, and has published three thrillers for Rizzoli.
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eccacci Agency
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Starlight Cristina Chiperi February 2017 Garzanti
The story of a friendship that seemed infinite. The story of a promise betrayed, which changed everything. The story of a choice that heals a wounded soul. Because evens stars can get lost but no sky is so infinite that they will not meet again. The university corridors seem endless to a fresh undergraduate like Daisy. Everything is new and exciting. She can’t think of a more serene period in her life until, in those same corridors, she meets a pair of eyes she would have preferred never to see again. The eyes belong to Ethan, her best friend when she was twelve. Behind that rebellious tuft of hair, Daisy recognizes the shy and mysterious boy who had won her heart with his stories about the sky and the constellations, especially those binary stars which, to the naked eye, look like a single one, but are really an inseparable pair. They spin together always, no matter what. And that’s what she and Ethan were like. Then it all changed. Because he betrayed her trust and Daisy doesn’t believe such a strong relationship can exist again. She no longer believes in the magic of the stars. She believes in the attraction of words and reasoning. They couldn’t be more different: she lost in the teachings of her beloved philosophers and he in his astronomic formulae. At this point they speak two diffferent languages. And yet meeting him again after so long brings Daisy strong and contrasting emotions. She must choose between remembering and forgiving. Her first instinct is to run away. Because the light of the stars can blind you. But binary stars are born, not made, and nothing can change destiny. There’s always a force that pulls you back again. Your place is there, for always.
OPTION PUBLISHERS: Germany (Fischer Verlag) Spain (Suma de Letras) France (Univers Poche)
Cristina Chiperi is only eighteen but she’s already an unequalled phenomenon in publishing. She’s the most popular Italian author on Wattpad with over 20 million hits. Her books in the series “My Dilemma is you” have been at the top of the charts for months. The most prestigious newspapers and leading TV programmes on culture have talked about her. Her thousands of fans on the social media adore her and clamour for new stories. And here is “Starlight”, the first in a new and un-missable series of novels.
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o should be h w e l p o e p y r e e v of reatened by th h t e r ’ u When the seeds o . y n e n k e a h h W s s i y t , all certain have imagined, r e v e n d l protecting you u o w ou sprout where y o t t r a t s e t a h in its vice. fear grips you
The House on the Burning Island Emma Piazza Rizzoli, Spring 2017
When you’re threatened by the very people who should be protecting you, all certainty is shaken. A family destroyed by vendetta. A countdown with no way out. A life to protect. A truth to reveal. On an island where no-one has the courage to tell the truth anymore, because everyone’s been a traitor. The sun rises out of the sea and the soft colours of dawn spread through the air. Nothing seems to recall the shadows of the night that has just passed. Teresa is motionless before the steep cliff plunging down to the water. Something is wrong in that perfect picture of sky and sea, wind and trees. Her grandmother’s body is spread out on the rocks in an unnatural position, her empty eyes staring into her own. Has one night really been sufficient to destroy everything? She should never have come back to the island. But the promise of inheriting a house have led her to retrace her childhood footsteps to her father’s territory, in Corsica. Teresa harbours enormous strength inside herself - the same fire generated by the island - but now she’s alone and everything seems too difficult. The recent end of a relationship, an unwanted child, the impossibility of establishing roots, the painting she should be doing, her great opportunity. Time rushes past and sooner or later everything comes to an end. Despite herself, Teresa finds herself a prisoner of the island, overwhelmed by a whirlwind of mysteries, violence, the flames of revenge. What is the island wind whispering, what is hidden behind the windows of the house that seems to be persecuting Teresa? And will Teresa be able to save her own life and that of the child she’s bearing, and learning to love day by day? To succeed, she will have to fight everyone and above all herself. She will have to decipher the signs of an obsession that has worked its way beneath the island’s skin. This is a début with all the power of the sea in winter, which manages to enhance the tones of suspense with the intense shades of universal themes like maternity, the sense of being in the world and the fear within each of us of not being able to reach beyond our limits.
Emma Piazza works as an assistant for an international Literary Scouting Agency based in Paris. She was born in Pavia from Italian mother and French (Corsican) father. Emma lived in Milan, London and Barcelona, where she is currently based. This is her first novel.
Foreign SaleS: Germany (Penguin Verlag) France (Fayard) Sweden (Forum)
”The island is the obscure world within each one of us, where fear and love battle constantly. Emma Piazza has written an unequalled Mediterranean psychological suspense with international range, capable of seducing, moving and scaring us.” Michele Rossi, Head of Italian Fiction, Rizzoli
kly ublishers Wee P � h s a l p S l a ation Making Intern t u reece. b e D n a i l a t “I erlands and G h t e N , y n a m r e e, G Sold in Franc
The Little Herbalist Shop In Montmartre (The Secret Of Montmartre’s Flowers) Donatella Rizzati Mondadori, March 2016 300 pages
Lime helps you recover lost calm, guarana brings energy, vanilla reignites passion. Welcome to a world of flowers, herbs and natural essences. Welcome to the Montmartre herbalists’, a place where anything is possible. Where even lonely hearts can start to find hope again. Viola thinks she has lost everything. Her husband has disappeared in tragic circumstances, leaving only a host of questions; her family has been distant for a long time. Even her work has turned hostile: she is no longer able to cope with her patients with due attention. She is a naturopath but she seems to have forgotten how to look after those who turn to her for help.
rights sold to: France (Editions Le Duc-Charleston) Germany (Goldmann) Netherlands (Xander) Greece (Livanis)
The only possible solution that occurs to Viola is to return to Paris, the city where she attended the school of naturopathy and where, hidden amongst the rooftops of Montmartre, there is the one place that makes her feel safe: the herbalists’ shop run by the FleuretBourry sisters, where time seems to have come to a halt and emotions take pride of place. It is here, welcomed by Gisèle’s maternal embrace, but also by a series of surprising encounters, that Viola will be able to take her life in hand and realize that Michel has left her the gift of a priceless heritage: the ability to gain contact with herself, with the eyes of others and also with a secret hidden for all too long right under her very eyes …
Donatella Rizzati, translator of English and French novels for several Italian editors, also has a fine knowledge of the world of natural and homeopathic remedies. This is her first novel.
I fell in love immediately with this wonderful novel. And I fell in love with the heroines: Viola, who has to find herself again when her luck changes the figure we women readers identify with - and Gisèle, her mentor, a wonderful human being, somewhere between a mother and a friend. Barbara Heinzius, Goldmann Editor
s so lose ourselve o t s u s e g a r u enco ale like a dream, , t a h t k o Chiara Gamber o b . � A n “ i a g a s e v ind oursel that we can f
The Unpredictable Journey of a Lost Thing Salvatore Basile Garzanti, May 2016 300 pages
“Mamma, are you going away? Where are you going?” The woman doesn’t answer. In her hands she is holding her son’s diary and asking his permission to take it with her. “I’ll give it back to you afterwards,” she assures him. “And when will you be back?” asks the child. The woman doesn’t answer. Little Michele sees her get on the train that is going to take her a long way away. His father is a stationmaster and the house they live in overlooks the railway lines. More than twenty years later, Michele is wearing the same uniform as his father, still living in the house overlooking the railway lines, his mother has never come back and he is surrounded by lost property, the items he finds on the train in the evening when life in the station stops and which give him a feeling of safety: because objects don’t go away, don’t promise they’ll come back, don’t let you down. But one evening on the train Michele finds the diary his mother had taken away with her. How did the diary come to be on that train? Was it his mother who left it on the train twenty years after leaving? Encouraged by Elena, a girl he has met by chance, and who would like to pierce the armoring and find a way into his bulletproof heart, Michele sets out on a journey in search of his mother. It is to be a journey filled with encounters and unforeseen events, a full-immersion course in survival and discovery, leading to an unforeseeable ending which is to change his own life and the lives of those around him forever. Salvatore Basile was born in Naples and lives in Rome, where he works as a scriptwriter and director. He is now working on two television series taken from novels by Maurizio de Giovanni (Commissario Ricciardi / Commissioner Riccardi) and Chiara Gamberale (Le luci nelle case degli altri / The Lights in other People’s Houses). Since 2005 he has also been teaching on the Master’s degree course in Screenplay for Television and the Cinema at the Catholic University (Università Cattolica) in Milan.
foreign sales: Albania (Dituria) France (Denoel) Germany (Blanvalet) Greece (Mamaya)
What would you do, if you felt like a piece of lost property, one of those things no-one came to claim? This is the story of a man who had never really experienced life to the full. He spends his life in the lost property office in a little station in the provinces, dealing with the only train that comes through the station and the items the passengers leave on it, day after day, never going to claim them back. But it’s also the story of a journey, a simple but amazing one, like life itself.
ISOLE MINORI LORENZA PIERI
ssesses guage that po n a l f o e t a l l disti it. hat inspires ating tale, a t v i a t e p s a c l a d t n s a y r e c and An intens the wild land f o l l u p c i t e the magn
Lesser Isles Lorenza Pieri E/O 2016 250 pages
Two sisters are born in the 1970s on an island with fewer than a thousand inhabitants, to a combative mother, a pleasure-loving father, and a grandmother who was a partisan fighter in the Second World War. The story of a family over four decades, a story centered geographically, politically, and emotionally on a small Mediterranean isle, the Isola del Giglio. A place that appears to be a terrestrial paradise, isolated from the rest of the world—a place that the main character, Teresa, tries to leave behind her as she searches for her own place in the world, only to find that she must always return here to settle old accounts. Just as she must reckon with the place that her beloved and domineering sister plays in her life, the political events that she never herself experienced but which continue to obsess her, and finally with her yearning for the seemingly endless summer that was her childhood. Until one day History returns to pay a call on the Isle of Giglio, in the form of an enormous passenger liner, stranded and wrecked, and Teresa finally sees that to put herself on the line is the key that will allow her to take back everything from which she once felt she had to run.
Lorenza Pieri (1973) spent her childhood on the Isola del Giglio. She studied in Siena and Paris. She has worked in publishing for fifteen years (Einaudi, minimum fax). One of her short stories appeared in the anthology Roma Capoccia (Deriveapprodi, 2005) and she has published a memoir, Molto grossa, incredibilmente vicina. Un anno con la Concordia sotto le finestre, (doppiozero, 2013). She is also a literary translator (Einaudi, Marsilio, minimum fax, Ponte alle Grazie). After living and working in Rome for twelve years she has temporarily moved to the United States with her husband and two children. Lesser Isles is her first novel.
rights sold to: Israel (Kinneret Zmora) Germany (Droemer Knaur) Spagna (Navona Editorial)
“I began writing this book many years ago, as I delved into the story of my parents’ lives, from a time long before anything I could remember personally. Driven by the need to tell this story, one you will not find in any of the numerous books about the troubled history of Italy in the 1970s, I found myself constructing a novel set in a place that History seemed to have passed by, or to have visited without leaving any traces. But “seemed” is the operative term, and the discovery of just how much the island had actually been touched by history served as the through-line for the events linking the novel’s characters over the arc of four decades history comes through and leaves its marks everywhere, even in the smallest and most out-of-the-way ports.”
of nd the force a d o o f f o r e , he pow an enchanting novel about t o t e l r b e a d t a t e e r g r e o h f An un any ports t n Uk and Germ i ry that trans o d t l s o S A . . n t e s p a p p the can ha here anything w d n a l s i t e r sec
The Perfect Recipe for Love Valentina Cebeni Garzanti, January 2016 400 pages
The earliest smell Elettra can remember is that of freshly baked bread and spiced biscuits. In the bakery where she grew up, Elettra learnt from her mother that food is the easiest way to people’s hearts. But now that her mother cannot run the shop any longer and has left everything into her daughter’s hands, Elettra’s cakes seem to have lost their power. And all the lingering questions between mother and daughter remain unanswered. Questions about a past life which Elettra’s mother has kept secret from everyone, even from her own daughter. Lost and confused, Elettra feels she has no choice but to shed light on this silence. Yet to help her she has nothing but a thin necklace engraved with the name of a mysterious island and a recipe: aniseed bread, which her mother used to bake to overcome sadness and bring back joy. This bread gives Elettra the strength to set out on her journey to the Titano island, a remote island of the Mediterranean whose history is lost in a legendary past. Here, amidst the routine of ordinary life, only processions of black-clad women can be seen walking down dusty paths that lead to the sea. Here every corner harbours a secret, a half-spoken truth. Here resonates the echo of forbidden loves and long-lost friendships. But Elettra is not afraid to search and to know. She needs to find out why the wind on the island carries the same aromas of her mother’s cooking, the same magic of her mother’s hugs which gave her protection when she was just a little girl. She needs to discover the connection between this island and the most important woman in her life. Only so can Elettra find herself. Only so can she restore her faith in cooking as an act of love and find that there really is a recipe to never forget how to dream.
foreign sales: Germany (Penguin Verlag/Random House) UK English (Little, Brown)
An unforgettable novel about the power of food and the force of the past.
Valentina Cebeni was born and lives in Rome. A passionate reader, with a background in the classics, she comes to writing after long peregrinations through the great masters of literature. Since her teenage years Valentina has cultivated her passion for writing with the discipline of a Tibetan monk, determined to explore the recesses of the human soul through the voices of her characters. First and foremost her own.
laura@lauraceccacciagency.com
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Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts Silvia Zucca Nord (Gruppo GeMS), 2015 350 pages
I’ve never had any faith in astrology. You know when your horoscope tells you it’s a great period, you have three stars for love, work and health, and instead you feel like a wet rag, you’ve just been dumped by your boyfriend and you risk losing your job? Welcome to the club of the intergalactically ill-fated! My name’s Alice Bassi and up to a few months ago my self-esteem was reduced to an all-time low. My historical ex was about to become a father and an impossibly sexy hatchet man had just arrived at the place where I worked, making my position even worse. The fact that I’m Libra didn’t help matters. It all seemed as though I should have been the spokeswoman for love and graciousness, when in actual fact I’d have had a good chance in the Spinster Olympics 2014 - and graciousness was light years away. So that’s why I didn’t believe in horoscopes, until Tio came into my life – Tio, my Astrological Personal Trainer – to explain that it’s not so simple and the fact I’d been the Little Match Girl of the Zodiac wasn’t because of some huge gap in the stars but because of the position of the planets in the Astrological Quadrant of my Birth Chart. Like saying “Thanks, Mum!” So the only thing to be done was roll up my sleeves and find out what sort of fate the stars had in store for me. And I assure you I found out a whole lot, first and foremost that in the realm of love, the stars don’t make a bit of difference!
A Graduate in English literature with a thesis on Shakespearean theatre and a passion for storytelling in all its various forms, Silvia Zucca combines writing with studies of cinema and filmmaking. She is also a literary translator (she translated Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James, and the first two chapters of the trilogy Crossfire by Sylvia Day). She lives and works in Milan and as well as writing she loves folk dancing, cats, wine, movies and good books.
rights sold to: Spain (Suma, Penguin Random House) Hungary (Park Libri Kiado) Croatia (Fokus) Germany (Blanvalet Random House) Greece (Patakis) Holland (The House of Books) Brazil (Objetiva) Turkey (Dogan Kitap Egmont) Slovenia (UCILA) France (Albin Michel) Slovakia (Fortuna) Serbia (Laguna) World English (Atria Books, Simon and Schuster) Lithuania (Baltos Lankos) Portugual (Suma, Penguin Random House) Poland (Muza)
«Silvia Zucca will make you laugh to the point of tears. She will make you root for the most bumbling and lovable character you’ll ever meet. She will make you feel heartbreak, joy, and everything in between. I promise you, you will be so captivated by this novel, you will absolutely not be able to put it down. I sure couldn’t.» Cristina Prasso, Nord Publisher
laura@lauraceccacciagency.com
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