IL PIÙ BEL ROMANZO DEL MONDO. L'ODISSEA RACCONTATA DA NICOLA GARDINI

An essential guide to the founding poem of Western literature and a handbook for our personal lives, our relationships, our fears and triumphs, our friendships and our loves.

Nicola Gardini partly translates and partly reinterprets the Odyssey, drawing on his expertise as a scholar and his sensitivity as a storyteller: his reading brings to life the "many-faced" Ulysses, the melancholic Calypso, and the terrible Circe. Penelope longs for the return of her husband, who disappeared in the war, and Telemachus for the return of the father he never knew. The waves of the Aegean Sea lap the shores of the Phaeacians' island while Nausicaa plays catch with her maids, and the Cyclops is once again stunned and blind as he curses his escaped prisoner.

Il più bel romanzo del mondo reveals how the Odyssey becomes a novel around the figure of Ulysses, a solitary man who asks the great question of humankind: who am I when there is no one else around me? An incredibly modern and moving text that ends up by highlighting the need for reconciliation between Ulysses and his enemies.

Nicola Gardini (1965) is an artist, poet and writer. He teaches Italian and Comparative literature at Oxford University. He is the author of the bestsellers Viva il latino (Garzanti 2016) and Viva il greco (Garzanti 2021), both translated into several languages. He has curated works by classic and modern writers, including Catullus, Marcus Aurelius, Ted Hughes, Emily Dickinson.