“Perhaps those who are born in a city like Istanbul are destined to feel at home in two different places. Perhaps it was my city that inspired this path. Or maybe it simply had to happen this way, as part of my destiny. I’ll ask next time my tarot cards are read. Or maybe the answer will emerge from the grounds of my next cup of coffee.”

Serra Yilmaz, together with Fausto Calderai, will transport us into her world with the book Cara Istanbul (Rizzoli).

The book:

How do you tell the story of the city of your childhood—especially when that city is Istanbul, a legendary place steeped in history? Serra Yılmaz chooses to do so by placing side by side, like in a memory album, the neighborhoods, streets, and homes where she lived, when Istanbul—already vast—had only one million inhabitants, not twenty as it does today. Reading these pages feels like listening to a voice that, beside a tiled stove during a harsh winter or looking out over the Bosphorus from a terrace on a warm evening, reconstructs and brings back to life the sounds and smells of a corner of the world that, like few others, has been overwhelmed and transformed by progress and tourism.

The unmistakable voice is Serra’s: one of Turkey’s most celebrated actresses, deeply loved by Italian audiences who came to know her on the big screen in the films of Ferzan Özpetek. In this kind of “autobiography through people, houses, and neighborhoods,” we discover long summers spent at her grandmother’s home on the Asian side of the city, among beaches and gardens; her relationship with her parents; friendships and youthful loves; her first work experiences; the emergence of her passion for France, for Italy, for theater; and once again departures and returns to a place “whose memory is inseparable from the possibility of any story.”

All of this is richly seasoned with caustic irony, picaresque anecdotes, rings lost and found, women without navels, a certain Levantine superstition against the evil eye, a magmatic and driving rhythm—and, why not, a few traditional recipes (cooking has long been one of Serra’s passions…).

The author:

After studying psychology in France, she joined a small Turkish theater company and began her stage career. She made her film debut in 1983 with Turkish director Atıf Yılmaz, but the film that truly launched her career in Turkey was Motherland Hoteldi by Ömer Kavur, which competed at the Venice Film Festival in 1987. From 1988 to 2004, she was a member of the Istanbul City Theatre company.

An icon of Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek, she has appeared in the cast of all his most important films. In 2006, she served as the official interpreter during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey. She has never, however, abandoned her theatrical work: she is part of the company that staged L’ultimo harem, directed by Angelo Savelli at Teatro di Rifredi in Florence, which has been running since 2005.

Moira Lilli will be at Giunti Odeon to present her book I Swear to Be Faithful (Rogiosi), accompanied by Rita Pecci.

The book:

“Society moves fast, shifting rapidly into a thousand different shapes, changing direction, and we must always feel up to the task—keeping pace, tuning in perfectly to a channel with ever-changing frequency. Pain, however, does not move at this rhythm. It is slow, creeping, relentless, cruel, often sadistic. It works like a woodworm, wearing us down, making us look fine on the outside while damaged within. Only the dust we absentmindedly drop as we walk may be a sign, but everyone is rushing and no one stops to look at it. In this world, what makes the news are dazzling successes and pathetic miseries, extraordinary victories and crushing defeats—not the silent dust of those who suffer.”

1945-1975: this was the golden age of Italian cinema, full of masterpieces that left their mark on the entire history of film. From the ruins of war arose Neorealism, the “movement” that, with Rossellini, Visconti and De Sica-Zavattini, changed the way cinema was made and conceived forever. From the early 1950s, the revolutionary charge of Neorealism faded, becoming contaminated with popular genres such as comedy and other forms of popular cinema, passing through the golden 1960s with the affirmation of great auteur cinema (Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, etc.), “Italian-style comedy” and other genres (such as spaghetti westerns), until the anxieties, experiments and new sensibilities of the early 1970s. A long history in which Italian cinema reflects and reworks the enormous political, social, economic and cultural changes experienced by the country during those crucial three decades.

1945-1975: this was the golden age of Italian cinema, full of masterpieces that left their mark on the entire history of film. From the ruins of war arose Neorealism, the “movement” that, with Rossellini, Visconti and De Sica-Zavattini, changed the way cinema was made and conceived forever. From the early 1950s, the revolutionary charge of Neorealism faded, becoming contaminated with popular genres such as comedy and other forms of popular cinema, passing through the golden 1960s with the affirmation of great auteur cinema (Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, etc.), “Italian-style comedy” and other genres (such as spaghetti westerns), until the anxieties, experiments and new sensibilities of the early 1970s. A long history in which Italian cinema reflects and reworks the enormous political, social, economic and cultural changes experienced by the country during those crucial three decades.

Domenico Petrolo, in his new book La stagione dell’identità (FrancoAngeli), offers a candid and innovative analysis of how political consensus is shifting in the West, describing both its distortions and the keys to interpreting it. We will discuss it on GO together with Paola Concia and Erika Pontini.

The book

We are living in the age of identity. Identity—a theme so intangible yet at the same time so concrete. Who are we? What is our place in the world? What will become of the community where we were born and raised?
The rapid changes of recent decades have improved our lives, bringing progress and prosperity. At the same time, however, they have upended the contexts in which we live. Globalization, immigration, radical Islam, woke ideology, demographic transformations, the digital revolution: phenomena that have left large segments of the population disoriented and deprived of certainties.

Above all, the working classes—once the electoral base of the left—are now firmly aligned with the right. Millions of voters no longer see the fight against economic inequality as a priority, but instead proudly claim the defense of their values and their identity, both as individuals and as communities. And they are ready to vote for those who recognize and embrace these demands.

Populists have understood this very well; traditional conservatives struggle, precisely because on the right there is always someone better at building walls. For progressives, meanwhile, the issue of identity is like kryptonite for Superman: they regard traditional identity as a relic of the past, while celebrating multicultural and cosmopolitan identities. This is true in Trump’s America, but also in Europe—from Germany to Great Britain, and, of course, Italy.

The age of identity does not necessarily have to be the one envisioned by the far right. But those who think they can avoid the issue or resolve it with a few extra euros in wages or some tax deductions are destined to sit on the Opposition benches for a long time.

The volume is enriched by the author’s dialogues with Romano Prodi, Philipp Blom, Catherine Fieschi, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Guido Tabellini, Nicola Gennaioli, Emanuele Caroppo, and Colin Crouch.

The author

Domenico Petrolo holds a degree in Political Communication. He began his career in the cultural sector and later moved into political communication and electoral strategy, taking part in numerous national and local campaigns alongside various political leaders. From 2015 to 2018, he coordinated the national Democratic Party’s 2×1000 campaign and the fundraising activities of several nonprofit organizations. In 2024, together with Lorenzo Incantalupo, he published Chi mi ama mi voti (Guerini e Associati). He is the founder and director of Cuntura, a company specializing in strategy, communication, public relations, networking, and diplomacy. Raised in Pernocari, he lives between Rome and Florence.

Lyra Sunrise is coming to GO for the signing event of her debut novel Twist of Fate, Vol. 1 – Obsession (Sperling & Kupfer)!
Preorders of the book, which will grant you a pass, can be placed in our bookstore starting Friday, February 6.

Useful information

Here’s how the signing event will work:

• The priority pass is available with a preorder of the book made in our store only, or with the purchase of the book in-store only from the release date up to the day of the event. Passes will be distributed in time slots.

• To access the priority line, you must show your pass (with the correct time slot) to the staff member in charge.

• Once the priority line is finished, everyone else who did not purchase the book from us (and therefore does not have a pass) will be able to access the signing.

•  

The book

Delia Foster has learned how to survive. Raised in the shadow of an absent mother and a past that broke her, she built an armor to protect herself and chase her dreams. But when she flies to New York with her best friend Lynn to start over, fate has another challenge in store for her.
Her path crosses with the Harris brothers, heirs to the most powerful multinational company in America: Alexander, thirty-six, with icy eyes; and Erik, as charming as he is impulsive, trapped in a relationship he never chose.
Delia becomes Alexander’s personal assistant—the man she should hate, yet desires with every fiber of her being. Lynn, meanwhile, is forced to confront Erik’s truth, his anger, and his need to finally be himself.
As the line between passion and danger grows thinner, the four are drawn into anonymous threats and secrets someone is ready to expose. And to survive, they’ll have to choose which side to stand on.

The author

Lyra Sunrise is the pen name of a young author from Naples, born in 2007. Since childhood, she has taken refuge in love stories from movies, books, and TV series—where her passion for writing was born. Twist of Fate is her debut novel.

1945-1975: this was the golden age of Italian cinema, full of masterpieces that left their mark on the entire history of film. From the ruins of war arose Neorealism, the “movement” that, with Rossellini, Visconti and De Sica-Zavattini, changed the way cinema was made and conceived forever. From the early 1950s, the revolutionary charge of Neorealism faded, becoming contaminated with popular genres such as comedy and other forms of popular cinema, passing through the golden 1960s with the affirmation of great auteur cinema (Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, etc.), “Italian-style comedy” and other genres (such as spaghetti westerns), until the anxieties, experiments and new sensibilities of the early 1970s. A long history in which Italian cinema reflects and reworks the enormous political, social, economic and cultural changes experienced by the country during those crucial three decades.

1945-1975: this was the golden age of Italian cinema, full of masterpieces that left their mark on the entire history of film. From the ruins of war arose Neorealism, the “movement” that, with Rossellini, Visconti and De Sica-Zavattini, changed the way cinema was made and conceived forever. From the early 1950s, the revolutionary charge of Neorealism faded, becoming contaminated with popular genres such as comedy and other forms of popular cinema, passing through the golden 1960s with the affirmation of great auteur cinema (Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, etc.), “Italian-style comedy” and other genres (such as spaghetti westerns), until the anxieties, experiments and new sensibilities of the early 1970s. A long history in which Italian cinema reflects and reworks the enormous political, social, economic and cultural changes experienced by the country during those crucial three decades.