Marco Zangari has followed up the publication of his 2015 novel, Latinoaustraliana, with a book of short stories.
It was released on August 26 at the celebrated Alfredo’s Underground restaurant in Sydney CBD, as part of an exciting show titled Battaglie, Bottiglie & Musica.
“We didn’t want to have the usual presentation and discussion of how and why the book was written,” Zangari says.
“We wanted the stories to speak for themselves.
“For this reason we created a show, where words and music entwined”.
Throughout the evening, audience members witnessed an array of stories and characters, introduced by Marco and with passages read by different people.
“There were cheerful passages and more intense passages, light-hearted stories and more serious ones,” Zangari says.
“Each reader gave a different interpretation of the text, and the splendid music of Marco Lucchi was adapted to every story.”
Passages read aloud at the event were related to adolescents and the difficulties they encountered while growing up, from work to parents, loneliness and the search for one’s self.
While the short stories are varied in themes, all of them are tales of “almost-love”, as indicated in the book’s subheading.
Some stories, like the one entitled 8 ore a Sydney (Eight hours in Sydney), speak of the recent emigration of youth toward Australia, a theme already explored by the author in Latinoaustraliana.
At the end of the evening, poems were read from the author’s own 2016 collection Chi ha bisogno di Rivoluzione quando invece puo andarsene al mare? (Who needs Revolution when you could just go to the seaside?)
“It was a party, more than an evening entirely dominated by books,” Zangari declares.
“It’s wonderful to see how many people are interested in these Italian events, even here in Sydney,” he adds.
The book Battaglie & Bottiglie is available online via Amazon. For information on how to get yourself a copy, email Marco Zangari.
