Ambassador Armando Varricchio visited the Leipzig Book Fair

Ambassador Armando Varricchio visited the Leipzig Book Fair, held from 21 to 24 March. This is the first major publishing event of the year in Germany, bringing together readers, authors, publishers and media.

Italy took part in the Fair with a stand and a dense programme of events, proposed and organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin, in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Italian Culture (CiCi) and the Italian Publishers' Association (AIE). The programme is part of Destination Frankfurt, the range of activities linked to Italy's participation as Guest of Honour 2024 at the Frankfurt Book Fair next October.

Ambassador Varricchio visited the Italian stand, set up with new publications in Italian and in German translation. He also took part in two events organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin: the meeting with the author Jana Karšaiová, who presented her debut novel "Divorzio di velluto" (Velvet Divorce), moderated by the journalist Anna Vollmer, and the meeting - moderated by the journalist and writer Maike Albath - with the Strega Prize winner, Domenico Starnone, who shared his life as an author and passionate reader. Identity, roots, ties and the Italian language were at the centre of the interesting conversations.

During the Fair, tribute was also paid to Italian authors and works of the 20th century: Curzio Malaparte's The Skin, with Frank Heibert, translator of the new version now being released on the German market, in dialogue with Maike Albath, and Elsa Morante's novel History, about which writer Nadia Terranova spoke, as well as the recent television adaptation by co-writer Ilaria Macchia. Finally, the Comic Night was dedicated to the world of comics, and was attended by Paolo Bacilieri, Sergio Ponchione and Federico Cacciapaglia, moderated by Andreas Platthaus, literary critic of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

In Leipzig, the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin also presented Newitalianbooks, the website created in 2020 to promote Italian language, culture and publications in the world, and now also available in German thanks to funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.