from: http://www.ultimariga.it
Nine stories in which life shows his secret reasons, its vibrations angelic, sometimes obscure. Why not always what 'that appears is what' that pulsates within reality. And we discover that you have never lost our poetry of origins. Even when life seems to close all roads, turn away from those we love, cancel appointments, darkening the world around us. Because like roses in December, nothing is out of time. Bianca Garavelli back in bookstores with a new book - The darkness of the angels (Giuliano Ladolfi Publisher) - Nine stories on the intensity of life where the common denominator is, in fact, angels. Work with speed where you get to a question the original human: the complexity and depth of life. We walked to the author to let us explain a few more details about his new book.
Bianca, how was born the idea of the book?
The idea was born in the spring of 2013, when Giuliano Ladolfi, editor and literary critic who founded a few years the small, sophisticated publishing house that bears his name, has expressed a desire to publish a book of mine that could come out in time for the Book Fair in Turin and then be presented at that meeting. There was not much time, and I had already published in magazines, or newspapers such as "La Provincia Pavese" or online, or unpublished, some stories linked together by a common thread. Not a "red thread", but a color a bit 'darker, because many of these stories have a tinge noir. And some elements that belong to the fantasy genre, little practiced in Italian literature, but very popular in the Anglo-Saxon and German. The story that opens the book, and which occupies more than half,'s friend Arianna, was released in 1990 in the series "Hourglass" publisher Naples Guide, along with a short story by Maria Corti, which held me so baptism as a narrator: I completely revised and adapted to the present day, for example by introducing the use of mobile phones, which did not exist twenty years ago. Here, the fact that a story is already out does not mean that remained on the scene, accessible by readers. Indeed, the stories scattered tend to get lost, to fall into oblivion. Post them in volume is a way to bring them back to life, a life that will hopefully last.
Can you explain the title?
The title is about precisely that "noir thread" that unites the nine stories: in all there is a character that, at some point in history, plays a key role angelic. That is a major change and allows announces, offers his help, even just through a Council or, in rarer cases, even became an obstacle for the protagonist, even as to seem insurmountable. This is the case of the female protagonist of the first story, Arianna, what I might call an "angel Failure": unable to follow his angelic nature to the end, almost forced by circumstances to lose itself in the mists of the great Po Valley.
Angels: can you explain to us what value does this figure in the book?
The angels live next door to us, in a parallel dimension to our: collect our thoughts, we suggest the way, console us, caress us at times. But in my book do not appear angels "traditional", because, as I said above, we ourselves can be, at times, in turn, deciding to help someone who seems to need it, we meet on our way. Therefore we have to look around carefully: every person we meet can be our angel, on a few occasions. The life we always reserves some surprises, often beautiful, almost magical. Our friends, the people we love, but also strangers, and even those we consider our enemies, may have an important message for us.
A book of short stories: Why did you choose this formula?
The role of the short story in literature, in my opinion needs to be adjusted. There are great writers of fiction that have remained in history for their own accounts, which are considered masterpieces, rather than for their novels. I think of Edgar A. Poe, the undisputed master of the genre, but also to Robert Louis Stevenson with his stories set in the South Seas, and Italians Pirandello and Buzzati. The latter also won an edition of the Premio Strega with the volume Sixty stories, considered by many to be his masterpiece. I would like, with humility but also with passion, get into this great stream, and help give back to the readers the charm of reading short, that allows to find a few pages in the synthesis of all the emotions of the story, without interrupting the thread of a 'unique history, but also remaining in a markedly distinct atmosphere.
What message do you want to get the reader through the book?
I would like the readers to think in reading this book as a trip to the archipelago, which starts from a distant island, mysterious and spooky, until you get to an area far more secure, peaceful, enlightened by hope and joy. In the nine stories there is an ascending climax of light: it goes from darker,'s friend Arianna, the brighter, the little girl who loved swifts, in which the fullness of life of childhood collides with the loss of 'energy, and perhaps the chance, caused by the passage of time. But with a surprise, overwhelmingly positive and moving, in the final. At the end of the book there is what has been described by Alessandro Zaccuri on 'Future' a 'fantasy philological "dedicated to Dante, who could only be the star of the ninth story. In the latter, as in the other, I wish the readers find out how their life will always exist new openings, new possibilities, without fear of old age or the age of maturity to a definitive end to the horizon. In particular, the stories Trains and The years have centered on the idea that life always give us a second chance, or even a third, and a fourth ... no limits.
Federica Tronconi
L'ultima riga