The Local

File photo of a coastguard boat arriving at Lampedusa. The man is accused of organizing the packing of migrants onto a boat that sank off the island in 2013, killing 360. Photo: AFPOne year ago an Eritrean was arrested in Sudan on charges of heading a major people-smuggling network and extradited to, ...ادامه مطلب

A Twitter account claiming to belong to Anita Raja on Tuesday night "confirmed" media reports that the translator was behind the successful Elena Ferrante novels, sending Italian media into a frenzy. But by Wednesday moing, it seemed that the account was a fake. The account, was created on Tuesday evening, with a tweet saying it would only stay open temporarily to allow for an "explanation".It used the handle @AnitaRajaSta - 'Sta' being an abbreviation for the suame of Raja's husband, writer Domenico Staone - and followed 48 accounts of joualists and news organizations (including The Local Italy). "I confirm it. I'm Elena Ferrante. But this doesn't change anything regarding readers' relationships with Ferrante's books," the account posted, at one minute to midnight on Tuesday evening. It went on to say that the way Ferrante's identity had been 'revealed' had been "gross and dangerous", and said that Raja would not give any interviews regarding the novels. "They are and rema, ...ادامه مطلب

Ferrante gained fame for writing about the working class districts of Naples. Photo: Carlo Raso/FlickrOne of literature's unresolved mysteries appears to have been cracked with the unmasking of the true identity of Italian publishing sensation Elena Ferrante. In its wake, a literary row erupted on Monday over joualistic ethics and writers' right to protect their identities and the personal back stories that may, or may not, inform their work.Claudio Gatti, an Italian investigative joualist, says he has established that Ferrante is a pen name for Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator who is married to a well-known novelist, Domenico Staone.Ferrante's best-selling novels, particularly her Naples-based quartet, have been acclaimed for their intricate, compelling storytelling and insights into the nature of female friendship.Her success has been fuelled by media interest in the mystery over the author's identity with the until-now anonymous Ferrante having granted only a handful of int,elena ferrante,elena ferrante identity,elena ferrante amazon,elena ferrante anita raja,elena ferrante my brilliant friend,elena ferrante books,elena ferrante series,elena ferrante interview,elena ferrante new yorker,elena ferrante book 2 ...ادامه مطلب

As Europe struggles with an identity crisis, a new exhibition in Rome looks at the birth of European culture through ancient manuscripts and the earliest printed books, including a first edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. While mass migrant arrivals have fuelled xenophobia and threatened to undermine the EU's core values, the exhibition extols the melting pot of cultures which shaped Europe - beginning with the 13th century Italian poet, himself a political exile and migrant. "The exhibition was designed to show that Europe means plurality of cultures because, with the Mediterranean Sea, it was at the junction of three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe)," curator Roberto Antonelli told AFP. "It is no coincidence that so many cultures and languages crossed here," he said at a presentation to the press ahead of the show's opening on Thursday. Nearly 190 works are displayed in the library of the prestigious Lincean Academy in Rome's Trastevere district, a science academy founded in 1603 and named after the lynx, an animal with the sharp vision science demands. Books, manuscripts, codices and encyclopedias in Latin, Greek, Chaldean, Arabic and Hebrew, borrowed from Roman and Vatican libraries, are on display in over 40 display cases - eight of which are bulletproof. They show "that it is culture which unites us as Europeans. That is the strong message which emerges from the exhibition, even more than its great scientific value," said Rosanna Rummo, head of Italy's state libraries. Electrode helmet "Books that have made Europe", which runs until July 22, boasts tomes by rival theological masters Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, as well as an imposing 12th-century "Atlantic" bible weighing 18 kilos. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, culture in Europe developed and spread for over 1,000 years largely through ecclesiastical institutions, with the bible "a leading source of inculturation" - the way Church teachings are presented to non Christian cul, ...ادامه مطلب