A meeting with the Italian author Paolo Cognetti will take place in Hamburg on 5 October. The centre of this cultural event will be his new novel, “The Happiness of the Wolf” (Einaudi, 2021), to be released in Italy at the end of October. Francesca Bravi will moderate and translate consecutively; Annalena Schmidt will give a reading from the German translation. The initiative is organised in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institutes of Berlin and Munich, and, among others, the Hauptkirche St. Katharinen.
Cognetti’s book recounts the story of Fausto and Silvia, who meet for the first time in the mountain village of Fontana Fredda. Together they experience winter descending on the little town and its inhabitants. Whilst Fausto enjoys the silence far from the city, Silvia’s gaze is always turned towards the highest peak, the nearest glacier. All the same, they are as close and happy as they ever have been, until one day Fausto decides to leave the mountains, and Silvia with them . But back in the city, Fausto’s thoughts continue to revolve around Silvia and the life he so desperately desires.
Following his international bestseller “Eight mountains”, thus Paolo Cognetti returns to the spectacular world of the Italian high mountains. He takes the reader on a journey to the highest glaciers and a confrontation with life’s essential questions. Who do we want to be? What is our place? A poetic love story about what brings us closer to each other.
The meeting will take place at 19.00 in Hauptkirche St. Katharinen, Katharinenkirchhof 1, 20457 Hamburg.
Admission is free but registration is required at: events@iic-hamburg.de
Paolo Cognetti will also be presenting his new novel in Berlin (October 4) and Munich (October 6).
