Rome, the Nuova Europa I Granai bookshop celebrates 30 years
The event will be celebrated with a book by Roberto Ippolito, published by Garzanti in a special out of print edition, which will be donated to all readers who will participate in the birthday party on Saturday 11 June, in via Mario Rigamonti 100, with readings and guests a surprise
Three decades on the shelves celebrated with an exceptional book. “That time in the bookstore. The writers for the 30th anniversary of the Nuova Europa I Granai bookshop “, a refined out of print edition edited by Roberto Ippolito, published by Garzanti, celebrates an extraordinary milestone for Barbara and Francesca Pieralice, who in 1992 inaugurated the Nuova Europa I Granai bookshop in Rome, in via Mario Rigamonti 100. The book will be given as a gift to all readers who will participate in the birthday party scheduled for Saturday 11 June 2022 at 11.30 with readings and surprise guests (free admission). An elegant volume with unpublished stories by forty-two writers, among the most popular in Italy and abroad.
The gift for the 30th anniversary of the Nuova Europa I Granai bookshop
Excellent words, extraordinary creativity, for forty-two stories, forty-two narrative tributes. “That time in the library” is a book literally with all the trimmings, because, as the curator Ippolito explains in the internal note, “it unravels. The stories contained are in fact birthday gifts. They are all conceived to celebrate the thirty years of life of the Roman bookshop Nuova Europa I Granai. The writers who are alongside her on her journey, who animate her and have a bond with her readers, have prepared them especially for this occasion ”.
The gift as an order for this thirty-year anniversary dedicated to the whole community built in recent years around the walls of the library which in 2012 won the Prize conferred by the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers. “We aim every morning, by pulling up the shutters, to be a community”, keep underlining the booksellers in the introduction to the pages, first of all. After thirty years spent promoting books, for this special occasion Barbara and Francesca decide to create a publication of their own and to give it as a gift as a token of thanks for the warmth and attention received over time.
A real memory in whole or in part or a fictional story, this is the desire expressed by Barbara and Francesca, together with the curator, towards all the authors protagonists of the volume, who over time have animated the days of the library with a direct relationship with readers. Among other texts, also the section “Voices from the inside”: two stories written by two members of the team of the bookshop, Valter Castelli and Marco Iannelli.
The content of the book “That time in the bookshop “
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The narrative solution adopted by the writers was varied and fascinating. Leafing through the pages, in the stories of Viola Ardone, Valentina Farinaccio, Chiara Gamberale and Mirko Zilahy, the shelves are the place of love. After all, they have an erotic suggestion for Mario Tozzi. The library is instead a sacred place for Antonio Manzini. And then there are Clara Sánchez’s pain for a friend and MariaGiovanna Luini’s. Furthermore, the embrace with which Ilaria Tuti combines two dramas. And the complicity that Sabina Minardi, Chiara Moscardelli and Tea Ranno are looking for. The bookshop is the theater of stories for Donato Carrisi, stories that Daniele Mencarelli and Walter Veltroni set there. Antonio Forcellino transports us to the times of the Inquisition, Stefania Auci and Lorena Fiorelli dedicate themselves to the found objects that bind in memory. Catena Fiorello Galeano and Piergiorgio Pulixi to personal therapies. But the disturbances do not spare Teresa Ciabatti. On the other hand, with Alessia Gazzola and Roberto Ippolito, adolescent aspirations emerge. Maurizio de Giovanni proposes a fantastic meeting. Rosella Postorino picks up an unforgettable figure in her memory. There is something that left its mark as children for Paolo Di Paolo and Donatella Di Pietrantonio. A mysterious contact is offered instead by Massimo Carlotto, an affectionate inspiration from Lorenzo Marone, suggestive from Carola Carulli, while the meetings of Andrea Frediani are unexpected. Massimiliano Smeriglio recalls the original intuition. Marco Buticchi, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Giancarlo De Cataldo and Romana Petri their experiences on the field. Giorgio Nisini, on the contrary, the lack of experience. Luca Bianchini, Roberto Costantini and Leonardo G. Luccone enhance the passions of work. Costantino D’Orazio devises a fable that recalls art, and Nadia Terranova underlines the enthusiasm of life.
A reading that leads to many different narrative universes and which all converge in what is a central place in the existence of the book: the library. And that can be alive and participated only if constantly animated by the main actors in the life of written pages: readers, writers, publishers, distributors. “That time in the library” is the synthesis of this great cultural community which will also be the protagonist of the 11th June party, strongly desired by Barbara and Francesca Pieralice. An important birthday for what has always been a space of pluralism, a special cultural center now made up not simply of customers, but of “friends”.
The history of the Nuova Europa I Granai bookshop
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With thirty years under its belt, the Nuova Europa I Granai, thirty of the leading independent bookstores in the capital, in its current layout, has grown over the years, boasts 400 square meters and a large community of readers who systematically crowd presentations, since since its opening. Immediately, in the intentions of the booksellers, with humility and ambition, they wanted to build something important. “Our very name reveals the spirit: a few weeks before the start of the activity, the Maastricht Treaty was signed, a fundamental step in the creation of the new Europe. Being born together with the I Granai shopping center and operating inside it means finding among the people, being a truly service for everyone. Reach the widest possible audience with culture. This has always been the goal ”. A goal that is largely concentrated and always pursued by new daily challenges.
Inside, a large luminous cloud gives the sense of the open world in which the books transport. Under the cloud, a great multiplication of literary encounters and, over time, other clouds have been added to the first big one. With the rich offering of books, more presentations have grown with a further greater range of literary and thematic approaches.
Over the years, the bookshop has been chosen by the most prestigious international authors, such as Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Abraham Yehoshua, Jeffery Deaver, Louis Sepulveda, David Grossman, Azar Nafisi, Joel Dicker, Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett, Ildefonso Falcones, Eskol Nevo and many others. and national ones, witnessed by the list of authors who wrote for the book that was the protagonist of the 11th June party. The intervention of the most important animators of public and cultural life is also usual. Among these, Edith Bruck and Samantha Cristoforetti, Ferzan Ozpetek, Carlo Verdone; great communicators such as Alberto Angela; journalists such as Roberto Saviano, Corrado Augias, Federico Rampini, Bruno Vespa, Concita De Gregorio and many others. Always having the stories of the city in the heart.
The bookshop has also come out of its physical place to broaden the sense of community close to cultural events. Projects with local schools and libraries, theatrical events such as the one with Dacia Maraini for “A million copies for Marianna Ucria” at the Palladium, festivals like “Voluminosi” with 22 writers in a single day, dinners with authors at Garbatella, groups of reading, history and philosophy workshops and the bus tour of Pasolini’s places at the end of a 10-day dedicated to him.