Incontri ravvicinati (published by La Nave di Teseo). Antonio Monda will share his experiences in conversation with Marco Luceri, head of cinema programming at Giunti Odeon.

The book:

Antonio Monda's relationship with New York and American culture is profound and all-encompassing. From his first arrival in the Big Apple to his international success in literature and cinema, Monda has cultivated unique friendships, connections, and exchanges with actors, directors, legends, and icons of the arts. His New York home has often served as a hub for intimate and wide-ranging conversations, a setting for remarkable encounters.

For the first time, Monda recounts these extraordinary moments, featuring figures like Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Muhammad Ali, David Foster Wallace, Martin Scorsese, Ingrid Bergman, Susan Sontag, Stephen King, Cate Blanchett, Philip Roth, Robert De Niro, Toni Morrison, Gore Vidal, and many others. The book opens with an introduction by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The author:

Born in 1962 in Velletri, Antonio Monda teaches at New York University and contributes to La Repubblica. He has curated exhibitions for prestigious institutions like the Louvre, MoMA, Lincoln Center, and Guggenheim. A celebrated author of novels and critical essays translated worldwide, he served as Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival from 2015 to 2021.

Some of his notable works include:

• La magnifica illusione (Fazi, 2003)
• The Hidden God (MoMA, 2004)
• Tu credi? (Fazi, 2006)
• Assoluzione (Mondadori, 2008)
• L'America non esiste (Mondadori, 2012)
• I film della nostra vita (Mondadori, 2013)

Other novels include La casa sulla roccia (2014), Ota Benga (2015), Io sono il fuoco (2018), Nel territorio del diavolo(2019), and Incontri ravvicinati (2024).