The Italian Cultural Institute and the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois, as part of a series of meetings “La Piazza – Literary”, are pleased to invite you to the meeting between Gabriele Giannini et Ugo Monticone animated by Tristan Malavoy.
Thursday October 4th, 2018 at 7:00 p.m
Maison des écrivains
3492, avenue Laval, Montréal
On the occasion of the meeting they will present their books, Gabriele Giannini “Un guide francais, de Terre sainte, entre Orient latin et Toscane occidentale“ and Ugo Monticoni “Le vendeur de goyaves“.
Un guide français de la Terre sainte entre Orient latin et Toscane occidentale by Gabriele Giannini – A French guide on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been found in Ferrara. It dates back to the XIII century and it depicts a journey from Latin Middle East to England, going through Rhodes, Rome, Tuscany and including all the Mediterranean languages and a myriad of writings. This book is a real tour guide and it is extremely similar to paper and digital guides we use today to plan our journeys or to visit places. It explains how to reach the Holy Land, which sanctuaries to visit, which paths to follow, what are the obstacles and the dangers to avoid and so on. Furthermore, it is also capable of evoking the holy history and the evangelical thought or of making us thinking about the real features of Latin Middle East during the XIII century. Even “fantasy travellers” (fantasy travellers are those who travel just with their minds, without never physically going to Palestine) enjoy this book, because it evokes their spiritual reflection and their love for the East. Thanks to the use of vernacular French (ancient French spoken in the Mediterranean area), this book is accessible to a wide range of readers, if compared to guides in traditional Latin.
Le vendeur de goyaves by Ugo Monticone – Hilmu was a fearless man. He had planned to conquer the big city thanks to his guavas’ bank”, but his project expired when he suddenly discovered having a great healing power in his hands. Since then he started an initial dashing path throughout India, characterized by lepers, pilgrimages and by the creation of his own cult (even if he disagreed). During this four-month journey in India, guavas’ seller combines more than 170 multimedia files (videos, music, sound environments, images and photos) that make the reader fully dive into the story. LaPresse has defined it as the “digital reivented romance”, while Journal 24h as the “book of the future”. “Le vendeur de goyaves” is at #1 position of iPad books sold in Canada and it is the only book in French in the Top200. Furthermore, it has won the Grand Prix Boomerang as best digital book and it was a finalist in both Numix Prix as the best digital work of the year, and at AppAwards, inFrance (book’s premières).