Last time I was at the conference, my wife and
I went on a hot air balloon ride. Extraordinary.

1. Rebecca Strauss, McIntosh & Otis, Inc.
2. Amy Williams, McCormick & Williams.
3. Seth Fishman, The Gernert Company 
4. Kirby Kim, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
   

• March 18-20, 2011: Festival of Books & Writers Conference (Tallahassee, FL)
• March 26, 2011: Carnegie Writing Center Presentation (Lexington, KY)
• April 5, 2011: Boone County Library Presentation (Cincinnati/Florence)
  
• April 9, 2011: Reno Writers Conference (Reno, NV)
• April 16-17, 2011: Writers Conference & So. KY Book Fest (Bowling Green, KY)
• May 7, 2011: Houston Writers Guild Conference (Sugar Land, TX)
• June 19, 2011: Holden Arboretum Gnome & Garden Opening (Kirtland, OH)
  
• June 24-26, 2011: Jackson Hole Writers Conference (Jackson Hole, WY)
• July 13-16, 2011: Clarksville Writers Conference (Clarksville, TN)
• Aug. 4-7, 2011: Pacific Northwest Writers Conference (Seattle, WA)
  
• Sept. 22-24, 2011: Hampton Roads Writers Conference (Virginia Beach, VA)
• Oct. 21-23, 2011: South Carolina Writers Workshop (Myrtle Beach, SC)

By Edward Nawotka

The paperless office is still something of a dream. Companies such as Firebrand, Oracle, Klopotek, Publishing Technology, Vista International and SAP have made massive advances in their digital author/rights management and content creation solutions — and despite massive investment in such systems, hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases — many companies are still mired in a blizzard of paper-based legacy systems. Granted, implementing new software and hardware operating systems is extremely costly — a hundred million dollars or more for the largest companies — and is an ongoing process. But tell us, does your publishing company, large or small, in the US or international, still rely on some form of paper-based internal management system? Take the survey below!

Mentre moriva, George Crosby ricordò molte cose, ma in un ordine che non riusciva a controllare. Rivedere la sua vita e stilarne l’inventario, come immaginava che chiunque facesse nei suoi ultimi giorni, voleva dire trovarsi di fronte una massa in continuo movimento, le tessere di un mosaico che ruotava e si riconfigurava di continuo in fasce di colore sempre riconoscibili, elementi familiari, unità molecolari, correnti intime ma al contempo svincolate dalla sua volontà, pronte a mostrargli un’identità differente ogni volta che tentava di mettere un punto fermo

Un libro scritto meravigliosamente, vincitore – a sorpresa – del Pulitzer 2010, questo “L’ultimo inverno” di Paul Harding. Il libro, mi fa piacere sottolinearlo, era stato pubblicato da una piccola casa editrice indipendente, in America, nel 2009, ed è una saga familiare ripercorsa a ritroso come in una sorta di febbre della memoria che nelle parole dei protagonisti confonde i contorni delle esperienze del passato.

La narrazione di George, oppresso dai ricordi sul suo letto di morte, è in realtà un coro di voci che diventa man mano che scorrono i capitoli, un unico canto. Cosa si prova infatti nel proprio letto di morte, 48 ore prima della fine, quando la tua vita si confonde con quella di tuo padre, che ti ha raccontato la sua, e quando un attimo prima fissi il divano accanto al letto, e un secondo dopo corri nei campi, col tuo corpo bambino appena decenne?

Le mattine ad esempio, in casa di George, “cominciavano al buio Cominciavano sistemando la casa per la giornata che si annunciava, in modo che tutto fosse già in moto quando il sole saliva all’orizzonte ancora invisibile e si inerpicava fino ai rami scuri degli alberi. Caricare il fornello della stufa. Riempire il secchio di latte (…) Prendere l’acqua dal pozzo. Accendere il fuoco”.

Perché “quelle mattine gelide sono cariche di disperazione all’idea che, per quanto possiamo trovarci a disagio in questo mondo, è comunque tutto ciò che abbiamo”, come riflette il piccolo George nel giorno in cui suo padre Howard gli morderà un dito durante un attacco di epilessia.

Howard il venditore ambulante, che “oltre ad aggiustare pentole e vendere sapone ecco alcune cose che faceva…a volte per guadagnare dei soldi in più, spesso invece a titolo gratuito: sparare a un cane rabbioso, prestare assistenza a un parto, spegnere un incendio, estrarre un dente marcio, tagliare i capelli, vendere cinque galloni di whisky fatto in casa da un contrabbandiere di campagna che si chiamava Potts, ripescare una bambina annegata in un torrente”.

Howard che ha una moglie, Kathleen il cui “silenzio pietoso è legato a doppio filo a un atteggiamento di sopportazione, all’espressione tipica degli oppressi”. Howard e George che fuggiranno entrambi, inutilmente, dalle loro vite. Perché in fondo la vita è così, come quelle canzoni dimenticate “che non abbiamo mai conosciuto, che credevamo soltanto di ricordare, quando in realtà, tutt’un tratto, ci rendiamo conto che non le conoscevamo affatto, e al contempo capiamo quanto possano essere meravigliose”.

P. Harding
L’ultimo inverno
Neri Pozza
15.50 euro

L'ultimo inverno, di Paul Harding é stato pubblicato su booksblog alle 13:00 di martedì 10 maggio 2011.

Writer speaks out over closures in appearance at threatened Kensal Rise library in London

Alan Bennett has joined Zadie Smith and Philip Pullman in the campaign to save a London library – opened by Mark Twain in 1900 – from closure.

As local campaigners announced plans to take legal action against Brent council over its decision to close six libraries, Bennett said he would be coming to Kensal Rise to help raise the £30,000 needed for the legal campaign. The much-loved author will be speaking about the library closures and reading from his work at an event on 24 May, which will also see him interviewed by Whitbread award-winning local author Tim Lott.

"We fully understand the need for cuts to be made," said Lott, who has been part of the committee to save Kensal Rise library since its inception. "This is not a head-in-the-sand campaign. However, local residents have campaigned to run Kensal Rise library on a partly voluntary and possibly self-funded basis, but have met with only indifference and stonewalling from Brent who have offered no practical help, assistance or encouragement."

Brent council voted to close six of its 12 libraries on 11 April. Councillors want to use the savings this will bring to improve services in the borough's remaining libraries, and to open a large central library near Wembley Stadium in 2013.

The six Brent libraries – Kensal Rise, which was opened by Twain, Barham Park, Cricklewood, Neasden, Preston, and Tokyngton – are looking to raise £30,000 to fund their legal challenge against Brent, which they hope will see them challenging the council on the "legitimacy" of its "flawed" local consultation process. "In reality, 82% of local residents oppose Brent's 'rationalisation' programme," said the campaigners. The council has said that although 82% of those residents who responded to its survey were against closing the libraries, they represent fewer than 1% of borough residents.

Smith, author of the Orange prize-winning On Beauty, has previously spoken out against the closures, arguing that local libraries were "gateways to better, improved lives" and attacking "the low motives [of the government] as it tries to worm out of its commitment". Pullman, learning that the closures would be going ahead, said that it was "a sad day for Brent that the council has not been persuaded, despite all the arguments put forward".

More than 400 libraries in the UK are currently under threat of closure, according to Public Libraries News, as the government looks to make budget cuts. Legal challenges are also being prepared in Gloucestershire, Somerset, the Isle of Wight, Camden and Lewisham.

By Tolu Ogunlesi

The Namibian government has a goal of installing computers in every school and every community library in the country by 2014. This is one of the key objectives of the country’s Vision 2030 policy, according to Veno Kauaria, Director of the Library and Archive Service in Namibia’s Ministry of Education. But like many African countries, it faces crippling infrastructure challenges: an inadequacy of electricity supply, and of internet connectivity.

Kauaria said this during a panel discussion on “Sub-Saharan Africa in the Age of Digital Publishing” at last month’s London Book Fair. The discussion was chaired by Nigel Newton, President of Book Aid International and Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, and featured Chris Paterson, an International Publishing Consultant; Clive Nettleton, Director of Book Aid International; Liz Kendall-Jones, telecoms industry expert and Director of Goalquest Associates Ltd, a consultancy; and Kauaria.

The Good News

No doubt Africa is experiencing something akin to a digital revolution. J.M. Ledgard, writing in the Spring 2011 issue of the Intelligent Life, a publication of The Economist, noted that Kenyan mobile-phone company Safaricom, with 12 million subscribers, “is the most profitable business in east Africa.”

A broadband revolution is currently sweeping East and West Africa with the arrival in recent years of a swathe of optic-fibre cabling. In Nigeria there are more than 90 million mobile phone lines in the country, up from a negligible number a decade ago. The number of internet users has risen from 100,000 in 1999 to more than 40 million today. Around a tenth of these internet subscribers gain access to the internet via their mobile phones.

However, because of dismal infrastructure and high costs of optimal equipment and connectivity, Nettleton says “there will be a need for [printed] books for the foreseeable future.”

Wanted: Textbooks and Other Books, PDF or Otherwise

Textbooks are certainly very important in the African context. Paterson referred to a World Bank report that highlighted textbooks as the “second most important factor in a good education in Africa”, ahead of teacher training and the number of pupils in a class. Only the “home background” of pupils proved to be more important.

There’s a healthy demand (“desperate need” in the words of Nettleton) for textbooks in Africa. The enrollment figure for the Universal Basic Education scheme launched in 1999 by the Nigerian government stood at  21.7 million in 2009. This excludes the estimated 17 million children who should be in school but are not. Those who are fortunate enough to be in school are grossly underserved. According to a survey, more than 70 percent of enrolled pupils in Nigeria lack textbooks.

There’s remains a thriving textbook publishing market in Nigeria. In a 1992 paper, Tanzanian publisher Walter Bgoya noted: “Currently, the only really viable type of publishing in Africa is textbook production for primary and secondary schools.” Not much has changed since then. In 2004 Nigerian writer and publishing expert Chukwuemeka Ike noted that primary and secondary school textbooks make up as much as 90 percent of the Nigeria’s annual book output. “Foreign book donations help to fill yawning gaps in the publishing output of Nigerian publishing houses and will continue to do so for quite a while,” he added.

Book Aid International is one of those foreign donors. Depending significantly on donations from publishers, in 2010 it shipped half a million “new books” to more than 2,000 libraries in sub-Saharan Africa. (There is of course the downside to book aid; a reliance on donations jeopardizes the business prospects of indigenous publishers. But the current gulf between supply and demand means that Africa needs all the help it can get).

Turning to digital delivery of educational content would help to further bridge the gap, and reduce the costs involved in distributing books. “The cheapest form of delivery is the PDF form of the printed page,” said Paterson. That basic format (Western countries have since progressed to “interactive design”) would be a good place for Africa to start; in Paterson’s words an “interim solution.” (Newton said Bloomsbury currently belongs to a 13-publisher collective that provides –- by subscription -– PDF copies of books to public libraries around the world).

From the audience, Kunle Sogbein, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Publishers Association, raised a question about the posiibility of “leapfrogging over PCs to smartphones” for the delivery of educational content. There are an estimated one million Blackberries in use in Nigeria –- only a third of these however subscribe to the Blackberry services offered by mobile phone companies; the rest are used as ordinary mobile phones.

The Bad News

Regardless of whether the focus is on PCs or smartphones, the challenges remain enormous. Electricity is needed to power devices. “When it comes to electricity, Africa remains the dark continent. There are a billion Africans, and they use only 4% of the world’s electricity,” Ledgard writes. “Most of that is round the edges, in Egypt, the Maghreb and South Africa.”

Paterson, who has twenty-five years of publishing experience in Southern Africa, said there are 16,000 schools in South Africa that do not have electricity. Considering that South Africa, with less than a third of Nigeria’s population, generates ten times as much electricity, one can only imagine how dismal the situation is in Nigeria.

Kendall-Jones pointed out other challenges apart from absent or grossly inadequate infrastructure: Equipment capability (many of the tens of millions of phones on the continent are low-end models, lacking the sophistication required for internet access, and for downloading and viewing files); government fiscal policies, and security (copyright and piracy issues). The security issue is a critical one; publishers will remain reluctant to digitize their content if there are no workable models for managing lending rights and ensuring that digital and online content are secure from illegal distribution.

The criticisms that have trailed the attempt to provide $100 laptops to children in developing countries will also have to be taken into consideration in any discussion of a digitization project in Africa.

While Africa continues to grapple with these challenges, the global publishing industry continues to move ahead rapidly. As e-books gain popularity in the West, and the production of printed books drops, organizations like Book Aid will find it more difficult to find to attract book donations from publishers. It is therefore in Africa’s interest to keep up with the rate of technological change in the West. Also, digitized illustrated children’s books by African writers will also find it easier to cross over into Western markets, since they will bypass the poor quality print publishing prevalent on the continent.

Nettleton said he believes that the question of digital publishing in Africa is not so much a “technological question” as it is a “political and financial” one. Truly, without any political will on the part of African governments, the continent will continue to be saddled with not only a dysfunctional public education system, but also with infrastructure inadequate to support a true digital revolution. Namibia seems committed to a transformation; several other African countries would do well to pay serious attention to it.

Tolu Ogunlesi is a poet, essayist and features editor at Timbuktu Media/NEXT Newspapers in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2009 he won the Arts & Culture Award at the CNN African Journalist of the Year Awards. He’s currently finishing his MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in the UK.

DISCUSS: Is Worldreader.org’s Gift of E-readers to Africans the Right Precedent?

We are glad to announce that Pontas will be selling international distribution rights of When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak), the new film by Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, at the Cannes Film Market – Marché du Film de Cannes 2011 !  

The film, written and directed by Annemarie Jacir, is currently shooting in Jordan and produced by Philistine Films. The main cast: Ruba Blal, Saleh Bakri and Mahmoud Asfa.  

About the film

It’s the 1960s, and the world is alive. Tarek, 12, and his mother Ghaydaa live in Jerash Refugee camp in Jordan. They are part of a new wave of refugees from Palestine. They have been separated from Tarek’s father.Tarek has high-functioning autism and is full of energy, enthusiasm and warmth. Despite his disability, he is charming and funny with a sharp sense of humor. Tarek’s mother Ghaydaa works at the Women’s Center sewing clothes and struggles to support her son. Being alone to take care of Tarek has caused her to be serious and protective. Ghaydaa has long ago lost a sense of hope. She has been separated from her husband - the love of her life - to politics and war, to all the things she wants nothing to do with. All Ghaydaa wants now is to provide a good life for her son, to work, survive, and pray that she is reunited with her husband. Part of Tarek’s disability means he cannot understand why they are refugees, or why they can’t go back home. He doesn’t understand the concept of borders and limits. He himself has no boundaries. He is truly a free soul. And one morning, that free soul wakes up and decides to go back home… he must find his father.

About the director

Filmmaker and writer Annemarie Jacir has been working in independent cinema since 1994 and has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning films. Jacir premiered her first feature length film, Salt of this Sea, in 2008 as an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Palestine’s Official Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film and Palestine’s first feature film by a female director. Salt of this Sea was sold to more than 30 countries. Among many other awards, Salt of this Sea won the prestigious FIPRESCI Critic’s Prize and Best Film in Milan’s Women’s Film. Jacir co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company, focusing on productions related to the Arab world. She currently lives in Jordan.

The director’s statement

“Since I have not been able to return to Ramallah, my understanding of exile and of being torn from one’s home has taken on more dimensions and deeper meanings. Being so close by living in Amman has not made it easier – only more difficult, more painful. A short drive and I can see Palestine from here. Over the valley I see the hills, even recognize cities. My friends, my family, my apartment in Ramallah is there – but I can no longer reach it. Palestine is becoming a memory and I struggle to hold the visuals, the reality of my life there, as close to me as I can. This is how When I Saw You was born. The striking visual knowledge of being so close to home and yet it being an impossible dream. The reality of seeing what you want but being unable to reach it. This film is about the depth of that landscape, the beauty of the desert and its cruelty. It’s also about how humor and hope keeps us alive.”

More information: anna@pontas-agency.com

John le Carré is famous for writing dazzling novels about the contemporary world - whether he is writing about the Cold War in the 1960s, the 'War on Terror' in the early twenty-first century and, today, in Our Kind of Traitor; a story that could have come straight out of Wikileaks. To celebrate the paperback publication of Our Kind of Traitor, Penguin in collaboration with the Daily Telegraph launched a competition in February, inviting anyone in the UK between 16-18 years old to write a short story that reflects the contemporary world. It could be any genre and the word limit was 2000 words.

Two months and over one hundred entries later, Penguin are proud to announce the shortlist for the prize. It was judged by the fiction editors at Penguin, and the winner will now be picked by John le Carré. Ben Brusey, one of the editors who judged the shortlist had this to say:
 
'I'd like to congratulate all of the writers who entered the competition. To write a short story and create a whole world in just two thousand words is what some authors spend their whole lives trying to achieve. That you have been able to do this, with so much flair and imagination, and at such a depressingly young age, is extremely impressive. The stories ranged greatly in geography, subject and style, from revolutionary tales in North Africa, to civil unrest on the streets of London, to the perils of technology in our information age. Great characters were born, and touching relationships forged. You should all take enormous pride in the stories that you have written and I am certain that many of you will be appearing on many more literary shortlists in the future. As for the shortlisted writers, a special congratulations.'
 
The Shortlist

 A Tale from the Holy Land by Rory Tingle, Age 17, King's College School, London  
 
What the judges said: "A dramatic and harrowing tale of a young boy in the West Bank who witnesses a suicide bombing, only to discover that his father was responsible for the blast." 

But He Didn't by Lottie Pyper, Age 17, Marlborough College, Wiltshire

What the judges said: "Using a poem as inspiration, a moving tale of regret and conciousness in  our  contemporary world, from recycling to war." 

Nobody Important by Simon James, Age 17,  Sir John Deane's College, Cheshire
 
What the judges said: "A modern day parable about the dangers of internet chat  rooms and online relationships, with a fresh and clever twist."

Sons of Abraham by Alasdair Wood, Age 18, Worcester Sixth Form College,  Worcester

What the judges said: "Set in the outskirts of Jerusalem, an urgent and evocative story about two boys who are caught up in a mistaken government terrorist raid."

Untitled by Helen Price, Age 16, Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, Monmouthshire
What the judges said: "A touching story about a secret relationship between a librarian and a reader who pass notes to each other hidden in their favourite books, only tragically never to meet in person." 

Nigeria in Pink by Edward Scott, Age 17, Parmiter's School, Hertfordshire
What the judges said: "Set in Nigeria, a poetic tale with a powerful conceit  where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuals are persecuted."

 
The winning story will be announcted next Monday 9th May. It will published in the Daily Telegraph and on the Penguin website.The winner will receive a signed limited edition of le Carré's recent novel, Our Kind of Traitor, along with ten Penguin paperbacks at a special prize-giving event at the winner's school or sixth form college. The prize will be presented by John le Carré at the college or school attended by the winner, and the school or college will receive the full Penguin Decades collection - 20 classic novels from the last four decades.

Migliaia di fantasmi si aggirano per l’Italia, sono i fantasmi di una generazione di intellettuali che si è perduta ed ora, cercando di ritrovarsi, si è ribattezzata Generazione TQ. Il certificato di nascita di questa nuova ennesima etichetta generazionale è stato un incontro, svoltosi a Roma il 29 aprile scorso nella sede della casa editrice Laterza, a cui hanno partecipato decine di scrittori, critici, giornalisti, editor.

A discutere sul Che fare?, sul come intervenire con decisione per invertire la rotta senza rotta su cui il nostro paese, a livello culturale e non solo, sta viaggiando da troppo tempo, c’era un variegato esercito di intellettuali, da Giorgio Vasta a Nicola Lagioia, da Gilda Policastro ad Antonio Scurati, da Giuseppe Antonelli a Christian Raimo, da Andrea Cortellessa, a Mario Desiati, Alessandro Grazioli, Federica Manzon, e molti altri.

Di carne al fuoco ne è stata buttata molta, e nonostante qualcuno si accontenti di vedere il bicchiere mezzo pieno e, con un velo di ottimismo, per esempio Stefano Salis sul sole24ore, di affermare che «Tutto questo è già una (buona) notizia», in realtà, alla fine, non lo è. Sì, perché a guardarlo lucidamente, questo esercito di Trenta-quarantenni assomiglia più a una sgangherata avanguardia che si trova a giocare con i mulini a vento invece che ad aprire la strada per una battaglia più grande.

Perché è questo che dovrebbero fare, smettere di lamentarsi e agire. Invece di discutere di niente, invece di ripetersi ancora una volta, e reciprocamente, la propria delirante autoanamnesi, invece di “cercare di vedere se sono capaci”, invece di cercare di conquistare spazi televisivi baricchiani estinti da quasi vent’anni, invece di perdere tempo, insomma, dovrebbero svegliarsi.

Perché di loro c’è un evidente e drammatico bisogno in Italia, un paese che da troppo tempo ormai non ha più una classe intellettuale che non sia asservita, spaparanzata sulle proprie posizioni, sulle proprie cattedre, sulle proprie scrivanie. E ce n’è bisogno subito, perché come forse non sanno ancora i TQ, noi non siamo più sul baratro da tempo, ormai stiamo già volando verso l’abisso.

Il problema è che a cercare di unirsi e di combattere, forse, è la generazione sbagliata. Non sono i nati negli anni sessanta e settanta quelli che devono cercare di fare qualcosa, ma siamo noi, nati negli anni ottanta e, tra poco novanta, noi che non abbiamo uno straccio di lavoro, che viviamo di stage e di elemosine genitoriali, che campiamo di collaborazioni saltuarie, di lavori fantasma o di lavori in nero, noi che nella precarietà di stiamo affogando sul serio e che, forse, dovremmo iniziare a pensare che questo è esattamente il nostro vantaggio.

Noi infatti non abbiamo cattedre, scrivanie o posizioni da mantenere, noi non abbiamo figli, non abbiamo case, non abbiamo mutui, non abbiamo rate. Noi non abbiamo niente da perdere, abbiamo soltanto un furioso istinto di sopravvivenza e, ben nascosto dentro di noi, in qualche botro per ora irraggiungibile, il dovere morale di reagire.

Generazione TQ, l'ennesima etichetta o la rinascita della classe intellettuale? é stato pubblicato su booksblog alle 10:22 di mercoledì 04 maggio 2011.

«Un vecchio delitto senza soluzione. Un killer che rispunta dal passato. Il perbenismo di ieri e il razzismo di oggi che si saldano nell’ombra. Dietro ogni verità apparente, se ne nasconde sempre un’altra. Questa è l’Italia, commissario Balistreri: e neanche la tua forza malata riuscirà mai a cambiarla.» [Giancarlo De Cataldo]

Ci sarà da attendere ancora parecchio prima di poterlo avere tra le mani, ma è innegabile che ‘Tu sei il male’, il thriller d’esordio di Roberto Costantini, previsto in libreria non prima del mese di settembre del corrente anno, ha suscitato l’attenzione delle più importanti case editrici europee alla recente Fiera del Libro di Londra.

Scoperto da Marsilio Editori, il quasi sessantenne Roberto Costantini, dirigente e docente allo IULM di Roma, è rimasto finora totalmente estraneo agli ambienti letterari e questa affermazione internazionale (che non è da tutti i giorni per un libro italiano), diventa addirittura clamorosa trattandosi di un’opera prima ancora inedita e di un autore completamente sconosciuto.

Di seta e di sangue di Qiu Xiaolong by Marsilio Editori su Libri News

Il romanzo, di cui sono stati già opzionati anche i diritti cinematografici e televisivi, ha saputo convincere alcuni dei più importanti editori dei principali paesi europei, che si sono affrettati ad acquistarne i diritti di traduzione: Presses de la Cité in Francia, Grijalbo in Spagna, Gyldendal in Norvegia, il colosso editoriale Bertelsmann in Germania, in Gran Bretagna Quercus, l’editore inglese di Stieg Larsson, e per diversi altri paesi sono in corso trattative.

Il nome di Costantini è ormai uno di quelli che si sente risuonare più spesso nei corridoi della Fiera londinese, e gli editori che sono riusciti ad aggiudicarsi il suo romanzo ne parlano in toni entusiastici. “E’ un giallo molto denso e ricco, straordinario, che ti lascia senza fiato” afferma per esempio Maren Artz, editor di Bertelsmann, “e d’altra parte è anche più di un giallo: delinea un’immagine complessa dell’Italia degli ultimi 20 anni con tutte le  allusioni e gli  intrecci politici, sociali etc. Abbiamo l’impressione che Tu sei il male sia l’inizio di una grande trilogia di un autore molto promettente. Crediamo in questo libro e siamo convinti che sarà un grande successo“.

“È una vera soddisfazione” commenta a caldo le buone notizie in arrivo da Londra Cesare De Michelis, presidente di Marsilio Editori, “Costantini è una nostra scoperta, ne avevamo subito intuito l’enorme potenziale. Quello che sta avvenendo alla Fiera conferma che ci avevamo visto giusto ed è di ottimo auspicio in vista del prossimo lancio del libro qui in Italia“.

Tu sei il male di Roberto Costantini by Marsilio Editori

Titolo: Tu sei il male
Autore: Roberto Costantini
Genere: Gialli, Horror, Thriller, Noir
Editore: Marsilio
Collana: Farfalle
Anno di pubblicazione: 2011
Codice EAN: 9788831709767

Prezzo di copertina: € 19,00

IL LIBRO – Roma, 11 luglio 1982. La sera della vittoria italiana al Mundial spagnolo Elisa Sordi, giovane impiegata di una società immobiliare del Vaticano, scompare nel nulla. L’inchiesta viene affidata a Michele Balistreri, giovane commissario di Polizia dal passato oscuro. Arrogante e svogliato, Balistreri prende sottogamba il caso, e solo quando il corpo di Elisa viene ritrovato sul greto del Tevere si butta a capofitto nelle indagini. Qualcosa però va storto e il delitto rimarrà insoluto.

Roma, 6 luglio 2006. Mentre gli azzurri battono la Francia ai Mondiali di Germania, Giovanna Sordi, madre di Elisa, si uccide gettandosi dal balcone. Il commissario Balistreri, ora a capo della Sezione Speciale Stranieri della Capitale, tiene a bada i propri demoni a forza di antidepressivi. Il suicidio dell’anziana donna alimenta i suoi rimorsi, spingendolo a riaprire l’inchiesta.

Ma rendere finalmente giustizia a Elisa Sordi dopo ventiquattro anni avrà un prezzo ben più alto del previsto. Balistreri dovrà portare alla luce una verità infinitamente peggiore del cumulo di menzogne sotto cui è sepolta, e affrontare un Male elusivo quanto tenace, che ha molteplici volti uno più spaventoso dell’altro.

Tu sei il male è un congegno narrativo di precisione diabolica che risucchia il lettore in un vortice di rivelazioni e colpi di scena a cui è impossibile sottrarsi, ma è anche un romanzo capace di gettare uno sguardo lucido sui conflitti che attraversano la nostra società e di allestire una riflessione non banale su quanto sia labile il confine che separa il bene dal male, i colpevoli dagli innocenti.

L’AUTORE – Roberto Costantini (Tripoli, 1952), ingegnere, consulente aziendale, oggi dirigente della Luiss Guido Carli di Roma dove insegna anche al Master in Business Administration. Questo è il suo romanzo d’esordio, il primo volume di una trilogia con protagonista Michele Balistreri.

Un nuovo caso editoriale targato Marsilio: Tu sei il male di Roberto Costantini un articolo inserito su: Libri News

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'