Ein Dolores-Prato-Abend

In the organizer's words:

Anna Leube and Manuela Reichart present the life and work of the Italian author.

Italy was the guest country at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair - an opportunity for publishers not only to present new releases, but also to delve into the depths of Italian literary history. The biggest discovery this fall is probably the voluminous novel "Down in the Piazza is Nobody" (Hanser; translation: Anna Leube) by Dolores Prato (1892-1983).

Prato was eighty years old when she wrote this book, which she did not live to see published in its entirety in 1997. The "monument to an entire era" (Le Monde) is the story of Prato's childhood at the end of the 19th century in Treja, a small town in the Marche region. Born out of wedlock, she grows up with relatives, feeling unloved and lonely. Her gaze is clear-sighted and enchanted at the same time; she tells of domestic and religious rituals, of carnival balls among the nobility and the people, and of magical practices. "Treja was my space, the panorama all around, my vision: a place of the heart and of dreams." Prato's masterpiece is an atlas of emotions and a unique painting of a vanished Italy.

"Down in the Piazza is Nobody" will be presented on this evening by the translator Anna Leube and the journalist and author Manuela Reichart.

Price information:

€ 14,-/10,- / 6,- (livestream)