Calendar - 15 March 2022

Literature Highlight

Anita by Alain Elkann

Launch of his latest book Anita at The Italian Cultural Institute London

Wednesday, March 16th at 6 pm

Cover Anita

©Alain Elkann

On the occasion of the English publication of Alain Elkann's latest novel ANITA by Bordighera Press, the author will be in conversation with Harriett Agnew (Paris Correspondent, The Financial Times), Enrico Palandri (Professor of Modern European Literature, UCL) and the book's translator Kora Von Wisselbach (Fellow Senior Lecturer, Department of Romance Studies and Jewish Studies Program, Cornell University). Chaired by ICI London's Director Katia Pizzi.

Alain Elkann is an author, intellectual and journalist. His books have been translated into 7 languages. Since 1989, he has written a weekly column for the Italian daily La Stampa. He also runs his own online newspaper, Alain Elkann Interviews. He travels the world publishing his English-language in-depth dialogues with contemporary personalities such as Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, Ronald Lauder, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Anselm Kiefer, Pierpaolo Piccioli, to name but a few.

The interviews cover all topics from art, design, cinema, literature, music, politics, economics and philosophy. Alain Elkann himself teaches 20th Century Jewish Writers by Kafka, Primo Levi, Philip Roth, Aharon Appelfeld at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is also President of The Foundation for Italian Art & Culture (FIAC) in New York. In 2009 he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French Republic.

About Anita

"Anita has passed away, bringing to an end a love story that seemed to last forever. Misha is unprepared, sad, full of regrets and nostalgia, with a desire to tell the story - almost to console himself - of how this relationship would have gone if he and Anita had met when they were young, rather than when they were sixty. Their time together had a profound impact on Mischa. The ups and downs of their relationship were marked by travel, rendezvous and passions. When someone very dear to us dies, it is an opportunity to think about what happens after death, whether we would prefer to be cremated or buried. Thinking about these alternatives can lead to discussions, reflections and unforeseen events. The examination of others' stories and pasts produces curious, even comical situations, and the possible afterlife is treated as if it were a continuation of life, as if it were simply a matter of choosing a place to stop and allowing oneself another stage of existence. This is a novel full of sharp wit infused with the tenderness of memories. The themes of the end of a significant love story and earthly existence are fluidly interwoven, with a serenity that is not detachment, but rather a complete, complicated and contradictory awareness of the fragility of life and emotion."

Alain Elkann

Podcasts of his interviews are also available or shared on social media.

Anita by Alain Elkann

at The Italian Cultural Institute London

39 Belgrave Square in Belgravia

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Time: From 6:00 pm To 8:00 pm

More about the book

alainelkanninterviews.com

Instagram:

@alain_elkann_interviews