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2009 Fiction Rights List

Nanni Balestrini Sandokan, Storia di camorra

Foreword by Roberto Saviano

Derive Approdi 2009 Opere di Nanni Balestrini 144 pages - 13 x 20 cm

Retail price: 14,00 euro

«When this book by Nanni Balestrini was first published, many among us who live in a somber area, got the feeling that something was finally happening. That something was literature… Rather than a novel about Camorra, or a literary reportage Sandokan is a flow of experiences and reflections, a never-ending trace, a phenomenology of life in the time of Camorra. » Roberto Saviano

World rights available, excluding English and German

An extraordinary book… The world of Camorra, that seems marginal to us, in this novel becomes a metaphor of greedy hopes that are now mark the whole globe. «Il Corriere della Sera»

Years concentrated in a flash. An account that is so realistic to appear as a fiction. A piece of Italy highlighted forever. And, most of all: a collective story. «La Repubblica»

Balestrini, whom someone criticizes for his formal extremism, is rather among the few (living) Italian writers – perhaps the one only – that pay attention to what is happening in our country. «La Stampa»

With this Sandokan Nanni Balestrini has probably written his best book, re-inventing the genre of literary réportage . «Avvenimenti»

In a decayed area near Caserta, a group of young people, in order to escape the miserable life of their peasant fathers, choose to join the crime. Ready for anything, they massacre the rival Camorra bosses and subject all the gangs in that area. So they can control any illicit trade – from contract works to drug traffic, and create an immense international financial empire that is more powerful and richer than Mafia. The flashing and cruel rise comes to an end with a bloody internal war, with mutual extermination and the final arrest of Sandokan, the only survived boss. Witness of such really happened events is a young boy that refused to follow the same way and at the end decides to leave definitely that irremediably wasted land.

Nanni Balestrini's work represents one of the major expressions of the Neo-avant-garde movement that swept through Italian literature in the 1960s. Through his writing Balestrini strives to revive language in a world in which he believes the social structure, with its ever increasing alienation of classes and

Agenzia Servizi Editoriali Via A. Bono Cairoli 37 – 20127 Milano (Italy) Tel. +39 0228510504 / +39 0287393515 / e-mail: [email protected] / www.serv-ed.it compartmentalization of individual roles, has irremediably destroyed meaningful communication. To counter this trend Balestrini seeks to affirm language as the object of artistic expression. Hence the daring technical experimentations that mark his literary career: from the device of collage to the use of the computer Balestrini aims to create an art product that is new and revolutionary with respect to both its syntax and its affinity with the spoken language. Born in Milan on 2nd July 1935, Balestrini studied engineering at the Università Cattolica in that city. Later he extended his interests by studying economics and political science. He was also reading the Dadaists as well as Guillaume Apollinaire, Berthold Brecht, Ezra Pound, as well as Carlo Emilio Gadda and the writers of the linea lombarda (Lombard line), as Luciano Anceschi had come to define that literary tendency.

All his works are now re-published by DeriveApprodi:

Rights sold Blackout e altro (2009) French, Spanish I furiosi (2004 e 2007) German. Vogliamo tutto (2004 e 2007) German, French, Spanish Gli invisibili (2005 e 2007) Gernam, French, Spanish, English L’editore (2006) German, French, Spanish Con gli occhi del linguaggio (2006) Milleuna parole per musica (2007) Tristano romanzo multiplo (2007) German , French

Agenzia Servizi Editoriali Via A. Bono Cairoli 37 – 20127 Milano (Italy) Tel. +39 0228510504 / +39 0287393515 / e-mail: [email protected] / www.serv-ed.it

Nanni Balestrini Blackout e altro

DeriveApprodi 2009

pagg. 160

€ 13

ISBN 978-88-89969-71-7

Open this book in any page. Read a few lines. You will clash into the violence of its sentences, the same violence that marks our way of life, our society, the history that surrounds us in our everyday experience, from the most trivial fact to great events. First published thirty years ago, Blackout can still be considered as one of the most intense text of Italian contemporary literature. Balestrini's extreme vision of an alienated society offer to readers the sense of an apparently cancelled period during which people seemed to live happy and free.

Nanni Balestrini's work represents one of the major expressions of the Neo-avant-garde movement that swept through Italian literature in the 1960s. Through his writing Balestrini strives to revive language in a world in which he believes the social structure, with its ever- increasing alienation of classes and compartmentalization of individual roles, has irremediably destroyed meaningful communication. To counter this trend Balestrini seeks to affirm language as the object of artistic expression. Hence the daring technical experimentations that mark his literary career: from the device of collage to the use of the computer Balestrini aims to create an art product that is new and revolutionary with respect to both its syntax and its affinity with the spoken language.

Born in Milan on 2 July 1935, Balestrini enrolled in the school of engineering at the Università Cattolica in that city. Later he broadened his interests by studying economics and political science. He was also reading the Dadaists as well as Guillaume Apollinaire, Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, as well as Carlo Emilio Gadda and the writers of the linea lombarda (Lombard line), as Luciano Anceschi had come to define that literary tendency.

Agenzia Servizi Editoriali Via A. Bono Cairoli 37 – 20127 Milano (Italy) Tel. +39 0228510504 / Fax +39 0287393515 / e-mail: [email protected] / www.serv-ed.it

Nanni Balestrini GLI INVISIBILI THE INVISIBLE ONES Foreword by Toni Negri

DeriveApprodi 2005 288 pages ISBN 88-88738-46-0

14,00 euro

English, German, French, Spanish rights sold

In the most famous and successful work by Nanni Balestrini - now republished - the focus is on the generation of proletarian young people that started a sort of revolution based on the refuse of work and labour, the occupation of public and private buildings, and “wildcat” strikes: the peak was reached in 1977. The tone is epic to describe a joyful, modern insurrection, in sharp contrast with the violence of the political reaction. On the other hand, being in prison didn’t meant silence and resignation: this part of the book is probably the most touching and impressive, telling about the cruelest jail revolt in Italian history. Anyway, the facts described are moving and involving in general, especially because of their historical nature, but also of the unique style of the narrator: Balestrini’s experimental approach seems to reach his complete maturity in these pages, in particular considering his attention for the possibilities of a collective, non subjective voice.

Nanni Balestrini TRISTANO Romanzo multiplo in copia unica (Multiple Novel in Single Copies)

DeriveApprodi 2007

pp. 144 euro 15,00

A note by the Author In 1961 I had written Tape Mark I , an experimental poem I composed by using combinatorial possibilities by means of an IBM electronic calculator - the ancient name fo computer. Bits of sentences were assembled in sequence, so to create a series of verses by means of simple algorithms that guided the work of the equipment. There was an infinite number of possible results, but a small series of variants, that was enough to show the sense of the experiment, was published on the Almanacco Bompiani 1962 . Later, I decided to use the same technique to create a novel. When compared to the previous experience, a text in prose had the advantage to have the final product as a tangible object that could be made in a big number of copies in all its different variants. As a result of the different combination of word elements that the computer would have selected time after time. At that time, however, printing technologies did not allow to implement the project, so I was content with publishing only one version with Feltrinelli - an ironic homage to the archetypal love novel. The book arose the interest of critics, due to its experimental and provocative nature, that questioned the notions of character and plot, of time and place. Today, four decades later, the development of digital printing makes it possible to implement my old project, as new machines can print a run of single numbered copies. This operation undermines the dogma of original, unique and final edition of a literary work - the abandoning of mechanical copying systems seems to hint at the uncountable forms in nature, where each element from a leaf to a human being is a slightly different variation of a same ideal prototype. So a literary work or a novel, rather than an unchangeable unicum , can be made as a series of variants each as a tangible book, copy and personal story of each reader. Tristano is just a first test, that still employs in a limited way the potentialities the new technologies can offer to effectively represent and describe the complexity of contemporary world and everyday life. A new way to explore literature and the novel in particular, by offering unexpected chances of creative freedom and communication with readers at large.

Luigi Anania e Silverio Novelli (eds.) CONFESSO CHE HO BEVUTO Racconti sul vino e sul piacere del bere

Foreword by Luigi Veronelli

240 pages ISBN 88-88738-29-0

13,50 euro

This collection of stories, confessions and personal experiences from contemporary Italian authors provides the reader with 28 different interpretations of the word and concept of “wine”. Comical and serious at the same time, these dissertations start from a glorious and famous Italian drink, but move beyond to talk about the true nature of drinking, about the imagination and feelings that are linked to this particular form of pleasure, as a special form of freedom and expression. This way, every point of view reveals a double meaning, showing various different matches and connections: pleasure and knowledge; love and loneliness; dignity and perdition… These reflections pursue an approach made of spontaneity, avoiding overabundances of professionalism and specialization in the matter of language; in contrast, the reader can find memories, family stories and anecdote of the past, jokes around the variety of Italian wine production. This way, a link is created between telling and drinking, between drinking and truth, following the famous Latin precept - in vino veritas . The authors: Franco Alasia, Luigi Anania, Giuseppe Antonelli, Roberto Benigni, Marco Berardi, Tommaso Giartosio, Simone Giusti, Francesco Guccini, Alessandro Iovinelli, Giulio Laurenti, Maria Tiziana Lemme, Claudio Lolli, Guido Leotta, Silvana Maja, Marco Mancassola, Melania Mazzucco, Jiga Melik, Gianni Mura, Paolo Nori, Silverio Novelli, Antonio F. Rainone, Fabio Salbitano, Paolo Teobaldi, Gianandrea Turi, Gabriella Urbani, Carlo Villa, Dario Voltolini, Domenico Vuoto.

Sergio Segio MICCIA CORTA Una storia di Prima linea

256 pages ISBN 88-88738-49-5

15,00 euro

From this book a film is now being produced

“Comandante Sirio” – Sergio Segio – is one of the founders of “Prima linea”, an armed organization which counted about one thousand members and thousands of supporters. This book tells about one of the most daring military operations ever performed in Italy: the attack to the jail of Rovigo where four political prisoners were held. This action, which took place on the 1st of March1982, is told with driving rhythm, but there is also room to describe the political and social background of radical armed movements in the Seventies. Through these memories Segio shows the spirit of indignation and rebellion that led him to fight against fascist terrorism, repression and police, possible coups, representing the course from antifascism to armed fighting. It was a time of struggle, of unofficial information, of demonstrations. The attack in Rovigo was just the late result of the defeat of the movement (due to bloody repression, political transformation, heroine and the tendency to go back to private life), but gives evidence of the lasting desire of freedom.

Sergio Segio is committed to charity work, especially in the matters of jail and drugs; he works with “Gruppo Abele”; and has created the annual “Report on global rights”. In 2003 he was decorated with the international prize “Rosario Livatino” for social commitment. He has also promoted the journals “Narcomafie” and “Fuoriluogo”, and cooperates with various newspapers including “la Repubblica”.

Alessio Arena L’INFANZIA DELLE COSE

The Childhood of Things

Manni Editore Series: Punto G 256 pages - Retail price € 17,00

May 2009

An overwhelming literary talent, that is able to make you laugh or cry, through the surreal saga of a Neapolitan family.

“This is my mother's hand. Her skin dry fingers still reeks of washing-up liquid, her nails are painted with purple varnish and the sole burn that still remain is on her wrist, she got it yesterday while taking the kid out from the oven ."

Antonio Bacioterracino is the 15 years old son of Patrizio, the leader of a great family of Neapolitan Neo-melodic singers. Patrizio's life is cut off by an overdose of heroin, and his corpse if found in a car in a suburb of the city. Antonio and his family are forced to leave Naples due to the public scandal which was caused by his father's relation with a transvestite - a member of a Camorra's family that controlled the area. The Bacioterracinos settle in the ill-famed Barrio de Lavapiés, a suburb of Madrid that was the preferred hideout of a community of Gipsies. A bizarre, ironic novel, that tells about death and life with a effortless but fanciful Neapolitan humour.

ALESSIO ARENA

( Naples 1984), graduated in literature, is now getting a Master in Hispano- American Literature in Barcelona. His short stories were published by the magazines “Linus” and “Nuovi Argomenti” and on anthologies - Quello che c’è tra di noi (Manni) and Amantidi. He is also author of songs. L'infanzia delle cose is his first novel

Enrico Brizzi, Marcello Fini La Via di Gerusalemme In cammino da Roma alla Città tre volte santa The Way to Jerusalem. On the road to the three-time Holy City

Ediciclo 2009 Retail price: € 18,00 - 240 pages Softcover 14x21

In an era of virtual friendships and television derangements, two friends take a journey on the footsteps of ancient pilgrims and wayfarer. They are determined to reach by force of their legs Jerusalem, the holy city of the three great monotheist religions - to see the world with fresh new eyes, open to slowness and naturalness. Step by step, Enrico and Marcello overcome mountain passes, pass though remote villages, meet horse-dealers, emigrants back from America, country priests, cyclists of Giro d'Italia , and a great variety of wild animals, to finally arrive at the world-famous Gold Dome. An enthralling story told through multiple voices, a great travel report, as honest and true as only men accustomed to grind out the miles can write.

Enrico Brizzi 's comprehensive bibliography includes seven novels, a collection of stories written by four hands, a non- authorised autobiography, a critical essay, three visual stories and one children's book.

Marcello Fini , graduated in Literature at the university of Bologna, is mainly involved in local studies and works at the "Archiginnasio" library

Agenzia Servizi Editoriali Via A. Bono Cairoli 37 – 20127 Milano (Italy) Tel. +39 0228510504 / Fax +39 0287393515 / e-mail: [email protected] / www.serv-ed.it

ANGELA SCARPARO L’arte di comandare gli uomini The Art of Commanding Men Novel PIERO MANNI EDITORE Series: Pretesti 224 pages euro 15.00

Elisa is a lonely, neurotic, childish woman. She does not accept to be left by her lover, and, most of all, she is shocked to learn that he will not keep her any longer. Elisa cannot bring herself to start a new love story with Valerio, a dishonest man who tries to mix her up in a theft. Elisa is a modern image of unfitness, a young clumsy woman that cannot make up her mind. She look for a shelter in her family, just to realise that her grandmother and her sister are like her - unhappy women that suffer for men's immaturity and selfishness. So, trying to be in control of the other half of the sky seems to be a desperate exercise.

ANGELA SCARPARO (b. 1959), lives in Rome, where she works as script writer for cinema: Her previous novels - Shining Valentina (Mondadori 1993), Quando cresci in un piccolo paese (Transeuropa 1995) e Disturbando famiglie felici (peQuod 2005) got a an affectionate readership for her. Since 2004 she has been the manager of the Web site www.ilpostodeilibri.it .

Andrea Satta I riciclisti

Ediciclo 2009 BOOK + CD with 4 songs to pedal by Têtes de Bois Price: € 16,00 Pages: 160 - Softcover 14x21 ISBN: 978-88-88829-80-7

«The bicycle of this bell belonged to a postman who had rode it for fifty years, to take messages love, war, peace, misfortune or hope to the most remote places. Then after retiring, he became the dam keeper, at the head of the valley. He rode his bike to the very last, to watch over the water and the fountains, to fish in the waters of the lake where he is now buried. Yes, this was what he asked for: when he would die, he wanted to be buried in the lake, together with his old bicycle, just like an old sailor in the ocean. So it was. A rowing boat left port, surrounded by small light candles in a warm April night. This bell is only left, and it has a rare sound. »

A novel that tells about bicycle in any possible perspective - the bicycle of heroes, of labour, the bicycle of mountains, open horizons, the bicycle of business and advertising caravans, the partisan's bicycle, the peasant's bicycle , the poor bicycles of emigrants who ride back home in the night, the bicycles of nice girls and springtime love stories, the first time of your bike without trainer wheels, an unique moment to link father and son. .

Andrea Satta , actor, singer and writer, lead the "Têtes de bois". In May 2009 he follows the "Giro d'Italia" as correspondent of the daily "L'Unità". .

Agenzia Servizi Editoriali Via A. Bono Cairoli 37 – 20127 Milano (Italy) Tel. +39 0228510504 / Fax +39 0287393515 / e-mail: [email protected] / www.serv-ed.it

Paolo Pasi MEMORIE DI UN SOGNATORE ABUSIVO Memories of an Illegal Dreamer

Edizioni Spartaco Forthcoming November 2009

Softcover 13x20 cm, 180 pages - 14,00 euro

Set in 2035 in a country where dreams are taxed, this novel lays bare – and makes fun of - the strategies of a power that disguises itself as a counter-power to overcome its crisis..

An ironic and fascinating novel

In a not so far future and in an unspecified country, the government levies a tax on the dreams of citizens: the OVT (Oneiric Value Tax) which affects dreams of the poor to relieve the insomnia of the rich. But somebody revolts against it: the main character of this amazing novel - half way between George Orwell and Philip K. Dick -- «That’s why I decided to write a psycho-diary – My failure appears so excessive, so provocative, that it requires a full confession. I will not write down the dates, because days are all alike. No way out to normality. The year is 2035, the season is approaching to summer. It is already very hot and the drought progresses ...».

Paolo Pasi (Milan,1963) is a journalist of Italian television. He was twice awarded with the Ilaria Alpi Prize for journalism and in 2005 he won the “Giallomilanese” prize. His first book, Ultimi messaggi dalla città – a collection of short stories, was published in 2000. His first novel, L’estate di Bob Marley , went out in 2007. He is also the guitar player in the rock band “i Cafè Parì”.

Luca Canali Fischiava il vento The Wind Was Blowing Foreword by Luciana Castellina Short stories

PIERO MANNI EDITORI 2009 Softcover - 96 pages – 11.00 euro

The “made in Italy” communism retold with sad awareness

With his stories, Luca Canali continues his journey within the Italian Communist Party. With nostalgia and disenchantment of a man who has seen the end of the fights, the civil commitment, the proletarian internationalism of an entire generation and a season of hope that perhaps never return. The communists as portrayed in this book are then an excuse to describe a deeply changed world which is altered beyond recognition, to tell something about the contemporary society that has lost any ideal. This is a book that teaches much more than an essay – it is written with the skill of a narrator, the passion of an activist and the precision of a witness.

Luca Canali started his literary career as a poet on “Fiera Letteraria”, a journal directed by Giuseppe Ungaretti. During WWII he joined the partisan groups of Partito d’Azione and then the Italian Communist Party, from which he was expelled in 1958 as a dissident. A professor of Latin literature at the universities of Rome and Pisa, he is also an esteemed translator of Classic texts. With Manni he already published several books, including Potresti averli già incontrati a una fermata d’autobus (2004), L’innocenza dei colpevoli (2006), Archivio rosso (2007) , Satyricon & Satiricon (2008).

Antonio Pascale

Che soddisfazione

PIERO MANNI EDITORI 2009 Softcover – “I Chicchi” - 32 pages – 5.00 euro

The protagonist of this very short “novel” is Vincenzo Postiglione - a screenwriter, novelist and journalist – who is entrapped in the more common events of everyday life.

Anthonio Pascale was born in Naples in 1966. His best known novels are La città distratta (Sandro Onofri Prize in 2000) and La manutenzione degli affetti .

Maurizio Cucchi L’onore del clochard

PIERO MANNI EDITORI 2009 Softcover – “I Chicchi” - 32 pages – 5.00 euro

In three very short tales reality and fiction, passions and disappointment, literature and art intertwine in an attempt to reveal small glimpses of humanity.

Maurizio Cucchi is a well-known poet and writer.