Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, June 19 2019 – The fifth edition of Sormani d'estate kicks off tomorrow, Thursday 20 June, the event promoted by the Municipality of Milan | Culture and conceived by the Milanese Library System, this year with the artistic direction of Oliviero Ponte di Pino. Ten appointments for ten Italian and foreign authors, from 20 June to 18 July, starting at 19pm in the Court of Honor of Palazzo Sormani, in Corso di Porta Vittoria 6 in Milan.

“The 'Sormani d'estate' program is part of the planning of Milan UNESCO Creative City for literature: on the international horizon, in the valorisation of books and literature, in the search for new readers and new forms of relationship with books , in promoting reading – declares the Councilor for Culture Filippo Del Corno –. The Sormani Library thus confirms itself as a lively and open space, in dialogue with readers and with the city, and its meeting proposals enrich the cultural offer of the Milanese summer, dedicated to the Milanese and to the increasingly numerous tourists who they experience the summer season in our city."

Inaugurating the event - with the only Italian stop on her tour - will be Lucinda Riley, who has been able to talk about love to 20 million readers (Thursday 20 June, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, with "The room of butterflies", Once arrived; aperitif to follow).
 
On Tuesday 25 June Marta Perego will draw the portrait of some great cinema divas of yesterday and today, telling the background of their careers and private lives (with "The great women of cinema", De Agostini).

In his conversation with Malcom Pagani, the Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo will range between novels and children's stories, between journalism and cinema, also because his latest novel is becoming a film directed by Nanni Moretti (Thursday 27 June, with “Three floors”, Neri Pozza, and “A kangaroo at the door”, Salani).

An in-depth study with Ferruccio De Bortoli is dedicated to the Italian situation, two months before the European elections, who will help us untangle the complex political and economic issues we are going through: but with an eye on the excellences that can relaunch our country (Monday 1st July, with “Ci salveremo”, Garzanti).

On Tuesday 2 July the Court of Honor will host a spectacular interlude: “Presences and absences. Multimedia performance dedicated to Juan Carlos Onetti” with the voice of Elisabetta Vergani, the piano of Umberto Petrin and the images of Pino Ninfa: a tribute to the South American writer, a contemporary classic.

The philosophers Francesca Rigotti and Telmo Pievani will meet in the Court on Thursday 4 July to discuss the themes of change and imperfection, starting from the stories of expats, a particular "category" of migrants that falls within the contemporary phenomenon of global nomadism (with "Migrants for case” by Francesca Rigotti, Raffaello Cortina Editore); and from considerations on the evolution of a species, the human one, which is the result of a process that is far from perfect (with “Imperfection” by Telmo Pievani, Raffaello Cortina Editore).

Selvaggia Lucarelli's is an eagerly awaited return to the Court of Palazzo Sormani, after the success of her last appearance: she will talk about her relationship with food and with her own body: even more sincere, provocative and ironic (Tuesday 9 July, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, with “Falso in libra”, Rizzoli).

But summer is also a time for travel. You can return to the city of your origins, as Kushanava Choudhury does in his dialogue with Annarita Briganti. The writer will explain why at almost forty years old, after growing up in Great Britain, he decided to return to Calcutta, where he found his two great loves: a fascinating and contradictory city, and Durba, the woman of his life (Thursday 11 July, with “Epic City”, EDT).

You can also leave for love, as happens to Melania, the protagonist of the new novel by Chiara Francini: she meets the young Axel and decides to leave everything to follow him, moving to the North (Tuesday 16 July, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, with “Un happy year”, Rizzoli).

Finally, Tommy Kuti, born in Nigeria and raised near Brescia, a Cambridge graduate and successful rapper, will make us understand what it means to be "Afro-Italian" at just over twenty years old (Thursday 18 July, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, with “Ci rido sopra”, Rizzoli). The meeting also marks a passing of the baton towards the next edition of Bookcity Milano, which in 2019 is centered on the focus "Africa".

The events will be animated by "The Menu of Poetry": surprise performances, with actors who at the request of the "client" recite texts by great authors, with a list of "poetic foods" enriched for the occasion by "dishes of the day" connected to the theme of each meeting.

All scheduled meetings are free to enter while seats last. In case of rain the meetings will be held in the Sala del Grechetto, with entrance in via Francesco Sforza 7.