The book withstood the hardest days of the pandemic and relaunched beyond all expectations until it took off in 2021, seeing sales grow by 25% in the first eleven months of the year, with women as the main protagonists of the charts. First of all, in the Top Ten of the Aie studies office based on NielsenIQ data, Stefania Auci, with 'The winter of the Lions' (North) and 'The Lions of Sicily' and Valerie Perrin with 'Changing water to flowers' ( E / O) and 'Three' (E / O). And what better gift to put under the tree than a book, even if choosing is not easy in the immensity of the editorial proposals.
Here is a small guide of Italian and foreign novels not to be missed, including editorial cases, winners of prestigious awards, new discoveries, without forgetting graphic novels and essays. Most anticipated novel of 2021, consecrated Book of the Year by the quality ranking of 'La Lettura' of Corriere della Sera, 'CROSSROAD' (EINAUDI) BY JONATHAN FRANZEN, in the translation by Silvia Pareschi, certainly deserves a special place and history does opens right on Christmas days. The author of 'The Corrections' returns to the Midwest with the great family saga of the Hildebrandt family, from the beginning of the tumultuous seventies to today. The first chapter of a trilogy, 'Crossroad' takes us, in the days of Advent in 1971, to New Prospect, an imaginary suburb of Chicago, where the Hildebrandts live.Christmas will not be a big holiday and until the following Easter everyone will dream of a different life or a new love. The Swart saga is also a familiar saga, but it offers us an insight into post-apartheid South African society 'THE PROMISE' (E / O), the novel with which South African DAMON GALGUT won the 2021 Booker Prize. Italian for Edizioni E / O, in the translation from English by Tiziana Lo Porto, also makes us discover one of the most successful writers of the post-apartheid South African literary generation. With the passage of the great thriller KEN FOLLETT in FOR NOTHING IN THE WORLD (MONDADORI), set in the present day, it instead tells us about a global crisis that threatens to lead to the third world war, leaving the reader uncertain until the last page.STEPHEN KING IN BILLY SUMMERS (SPERLING & KUPFER), translated by Luca Briasco, speaks of justice and destiny, love and redemption, and of the incredible cathartic power of writing. Those who loved FERNANDO ARAMBURU's 'Patria' will also find the writer's powerful voice in 'I RONDONI' (GUANDA), but here the journey is different: the protagonist of the novel, set in Madrid, is a man who decides to commit suicide and not knows why. Among the novels by Italian authors, perfect to put under the tree: 'LA CITTÀ DEI VIVI' (EINAUDI), the most powerful book BY NICOLA LAGIOIA, which has also become a podcast and a live show, which reconstructs the murder of Luca Varani, in March 2016, showing us in a unique way the darkness of the human soul and a city that survives, Rome. It's a special book 'THREE LIVES (NERI POZZA) OF THE 2021 EMANUELE TREVI WITCH AWARD which tells of the friendship that linked the author to two writers who died prematurely, Rocco Carbone and Pia Pera, giving us back their personality.
Challenge the unhappiness 'LAKE WATER IS NEVER SWEET' (BOMPIANI) OF THE 2021 GIULIA CAMINITO CAMPIELLO AWARD who gives voice to Gaia, a child and then adolescent in the void of the 2000s, with a disastrous family, a difficult relationship with mother Antonia and a disabled father. It delves into the origin of our questions about love CHIARA GAMBERALE in THE PATERNAL WOMAN (FELTRINELLI) in which the writer, who has become a mother, questions herself about the responsibility of the love given and received. For fans, and there are many, by Laura Imai Messina Piemme has published QUEL CHE AFFIDIAMO AL VENTO, the bestseller optioned for a film by Cattleya, which revealed the Italian writer who lives in Japan to the general public, in a new edition illustrated by IGORT.Among the goodies also IL GRANDE LIBRO DEL VINTAGE (IL SAGGIATORE) in which the journalist SABINA MINARDI tells us, from crochet bags to high-waisted trousers and from the Indiana Jones sequel to the return of vinyls, because the "how we were" is become the "as we are". A unique journey into the history of video games to discover the revolutionary impact they have had on our society is the one proposed by the CURATORS OF THE WORLD VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME in THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES IN 64 OBJECTS (HARPERCOLLINS). And for those who are passionate about graphic novels and comics, in addition to Zerocalcare, they can go to the discovery of 'I GIORNI FELICI' (COCONINO PRESS-FANDANGO) DI ZUZU, stage name of Giulia Spagnuolo who tells us the story of a creature human and bestial, sweet and wild,who sees his body transform continuously. (HANDLE).
