“I didn’t think about making it come like this, I didn’t do it on purpose, it came by itself. I love to write, I enjoyed doing it in freedom: I’m like a horse that they open the fence to.” Manlio Graziano, professor of geopolitics and history of religions at the Sorbonne in Paris, says this to Adnkronos, speaking of his latest book “Mondo Birbetta!” (New Argos). Graziano is a river in full swing, aware that this book is very different from many others, as he himself writes in the introduction: “It is not a history book. It is not even a memoir. It is a book that I don’t know how to pigeonhole it. It’s a book in itself “. The work, which combines national macro-history with Graziano’s family micro-stories, focuses above all on the Second World War and on the events that affected his family: the mother who ran away on foot from Tuscany to Piedmont, the father deported to Germany, the dead grandfather. young and, above all, the story of grandmother Anna, around whom the story revolves. “But – Graziano is keen to underline – there are so many family stories like these: the difference is the way of presenting the story of my grandmother and of the family”. Language is the real novelty of this story. Irreverent, ironic, intriguing and above all expressionistic, the style makes the text within everyone’s reach. The words, sharp and harmonious, evoke memories, dreams, past deeds indelibly engraved in the memory. “I paid attention to the rhythm – Graziano confesses – coming to invent words and to change the tonic accents of some terms. I hope that not only what I tell but also how I do it reaches the public”. The book has various versions, a bit like for the Promessi Sposi, but woe to compare it to famous literary works: “Mine is not an attempt or an expressive experiment because it was not wanted. I leave the words free to play”. The book has ancient origins. The first version is in fact from 1999, on the occasion of the centenary anniversary of the birth of grandmother Anna. “I wrote it for my girlfriend at the time, I wanted to tell the story of my family. I then changed my hand in 2015 when my uncle died. I rewrote two thirds of the text, but the style was the same as in the previous version. There is almost nothing about me, it is not autobiographical, there is only a few cameo as a child “. However, they are the memories with her grandmother, the last ones she has with her, the most touching moments, in which everyone can identify and immerse themselves, as an adult, in a rare moment of nostalgia girl. “I wanted some of the protagonists to see it published. Some were moved. The episode that I would like to remain most impressed is that of my grandfather. He was very cultured, versatile: he had an artistic streak that he transmitted to me. I never knew him. , but his memory is always alive in me “. It is precisely in the remembrance, and in the sweetness that the memory arouses after many years, the meaning and the framework of this small and precious tale.
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