Join us for the book presentation featuring Enrico Terrinoni, the author of ‘La vita dell’altro. Svevo, Joyce: un’amicizia geniale’ (Bompiani, 2023).
Readings of selected letters from the correspondence between Joyce and Svevo, performed by actresses Francesca Bizzarri and Carmen Panarello.
The book is the untold story of a very special friendship between two of the great writers of the twentieth century: James Joyce and Italo Svevo, set against the backdrop of Trieste, a city on the border between East and West where both lived.
When Joyce arrived in Trieste, he was a rather rebellious Irishman who loved Italian language and culture. He left his country, Ireland, which he thought was under the double yoke of the British Empire and the Catholic Church. Svevo was a middle-aged gentleman of Jewish descent who had worked for a long time in a bank and now worked in his wife’s family firm. He became one of the main models for Leopold Bloom.
Joyce came to teach English, and immediately stood out in Trieste for his unorthodox behavior. Svevo, a good-natured family man, noticed him and employed him as a teacher. Soon they started exchanging their writings. They admired each other’s works. They used to stroll and discuss a thousand topics, so we are told. Svevo often helped Joyce lending him money, and Joyce in time reciprocated his generosity by helping Svevo become an internationally renowned writer. Their stories intersect just as their works. They intertwine as in a curious quantum entanglement.
About the author
Enrico Terrinoni is Professor in residence at the Centro Interdisciplinare ‘B. Segre’, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and Professor of English Literature at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. He has translated works by Joyce, Wilde, Orwell, Shaw, Hawthorne and many others, winning numerous prizes. He is the translator of many works by Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland. His works include Occult Joyce. The Hidden in Ulysses (2008), James Joyce e la fine del romanzo (2015), Oltre abita il silenzio. Tradurre la letteratura (2019) e Su tutti i vivi e i morti. Joyce a Roma (Jury Prize – Francesco De Sanctis Prize; Jury Prize – Viareggio-Rèpaci Prize). His bilingual annotated Ulysses (Bompiani 2021) won the Capalbio International Prize for Translation in 2022.
About the actresses
Francesca Bizzarri is an Italian actress residing in Abu Dhabi. Having lived in Paris for over a decade, she has worked in theater, television, and cinema. She has collaborated for twenty years with theater companies Teatro delle Briciole and Cà Luogo D’arte in Parma, performing in various international theaters. She conducts theater workshops in Europe, Kenya, and the UAE. She participated in Dubai Expo 2020 and the Sharjah International Book Fair with a traveling theater and puppet performance. In October 2023, her bilingual show “The Acting Class” was at The Junction in Dubai.
