2024 Programme
Event #3
Friday 30 August, 09.00 pm
Matteotti square1 - euro 4.50
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Silvia Avallone
Why are we grateful to literature?
Literature is the best place for exploring evil because it questions lives and people, not concepts. Even if these lives and people are imaginary, it doesn't mean they aren't real and authentic. When we read a novel, we are called to become others, often the most uncomfortable ones: those who have committed evil (like the protagonists of Crime and Punishment and In Cold Blood), or those who have suffered it (like Verga's defeated characters). However, facing evil openly is also the only way to choose good. One of the most important lessons literature teaches us is realising that each of us contains both possibilities, and that no person is defined solely by their guilt or trauma. We are stories, not definitions. We are made of freedom and change, we are stronger than the evil that traps and destroys us.
https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/Silvia Avallone was born in Biella in 1984 and lives in Bologna. Her books include the international bestseller "Acciaio" (2010, winner of several awards, including the Premio Campiello, finalist for the Premio Strega, and was adapted into a film), "Marina Bellezza" (2013), "Da dove la vita è perfetta" (2017), "Un’amicizia" (2020), and "Cuore nero" (2024), all published by Rizzoli. Her novels have been translated into over thirty countries worldwide.
ph. credits: Giovanni Previdi
Event #43extraFestival
Minotauro Institute, with Loredana Cirillo and Filippo Rosa
Thank you! What we have never told our children and students
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