Alessandro Baricco

Interview

• "Reading, writing, and thinking at the computer" (Turin, 21-04-1997)

Biography

Born in Turin in 1958, Alessandro Baricco began his career as a music critic in the Italian daily "La Repubblica" before becoming cultural correspondent for "La Stampa". His love of music and literature inspired his activity as essayist and storyteller.

He made his television debut in 1993, presenting "L'amore è un dardo" (Love is a dart), a successful programme on the RAI3 public television channel dedicated to opera, which attempted to make this fascinating, but often impenetrable, world accessible to the general public. In 1994 he presented a programme on literature entitled "Pickwick, del leggere e dello scrivere" (Pickwick: Of reading and writing) with the journalist Giovanna Zucconi.

After his experience in television, Baricco founded the "Holden" school of writing in Turin, dedicated to narrative technique.

Bibliography

Essays:

• Il genio in fuga, 1988
• L'anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin, Garzanti 1992

Novels:

• Castelli di rabbia, Rizzoli 1991, Tascabili Bompiani 1994, Premio Selezione Campiello, Prix Medicis étranger
• Oceano mare, Rizzoli 1993, Premio Viareggio
• Seta, 1996

Theatre:

• Novecento, Feltrinelli (1994)

Collected articles:

• Barnum. Cronache dal Grande Show, Feltrinelli 1995