THE BOOK OF HIDDEN THINGS
Four friends have a pact: to meet up on the same day every year in their small hometown in southern Italy. Art, the charismatic leader of the group, has always been adamant about the pact. But this year, he doesn't show up.
Searching for him, the friends make a worrying discovery: Art has been farming marijuana, a very dangerous activity in mafia-controlled country. Asking around in town, they hear bizarre and incredible rumours that Art cured a young girl of leukemia.
And then, amongst the chaos of his house, they find a curious manuscript written by Art called The Book of Hidden Things, which promises to reveal secrets enchanting as flames, and just as treacherous...
NEVER THE WIND
Praise God, never the wind.
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1996 - Luca Saracino is thirteen and has been completely blind for eight months when his parents move to a Southern Italian farmhouse they dream of turning into a hotel. With his brother dropping out of university and the family reeling from Luca’s diagnosis, they are chasing dreams of rebirth and reinvention.
As Luca tells his story without sight - experiencing the world solely through hearing, smell, taste and touch - he meets the dauntless Ada Guadalupi, who takes him out to explore the rocky fields and empty beaches. But Luca and Ada find they can’t escape the grudges that have lasted between their families for generations, or the gossiping of the town. And Luca is preyed upon by the feral Wanderer, who walks the vineyards of his home.
As Luca's family starts to crack at the seams, Luca and Ada have to navigate new lands and old rivalries to uncover the truths spoken as whispers on the wind.
THAT SENSE OF WONDER
'Philosophy begins in wonder,' said Plato. Descartes agreed that 'wonder is the first of all emotions'. Wonder is the impulse behind all scientific and philosophical endeavour, art and spirituality. It is the most fruitful human sense: fuelling our creativity; firing our curiosity; inspiring us to hope and to dream.
But our sense of wonder that feeling we had as children seeing the Milky Way for the first time gets used up. Faced with mortgage and money, we trade a sense of wonder for a sense of reality. And with the world getting ever more complex, reality too often brings anxiety and unhappiness.
Francesco Dimitri argues that this is because we have lost touch with our sixth sense, our sense of wonder. By exploring the nature of wonder in many areas of human experience - in religion and spirituality; in myth and folk tales, in modern science and technology - he sets out to show how we can reclaim our sense of wonder, not to become children again, but to become happier and more fulfilled adults.
CUTTING EDGE
Tomb Raider meets The Hunger Games in a brand new series by renowned fantasy author and award-winning Italian artist. Brought together by a clandestine corporation, the world’s greatest minds are set a challenge of epic proportions: the dodecathlon. Unlikely alliances are made in order to fulfill the quest, and uncover the mysterious truth behind it all. But as the conspiracy is unveiled, how many will survive…?
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TO READ ALOUD
Reading a story to another person creates a bond between two people. It is often assumed that reading aloud is only for children, but the practice was once a common pleasure for adults too. The time has come to rediscover it. This simple yet powerful action connects us with our friends, helps us centre ourselves in the present and lets us focus gently on what matters.
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To Read Aloud consists of 75 extracts of an average 1000 words each, from writers ranging from Cicero to Lewis Carroll to Robert Macfarlane (alongside less familiar names). It is arranged under ten thematic chapters: Love, Loss, Lightness, Pleasure, Work, Illness, Nature, Change, Chaos and Wonder. A literary toolbox for well-being, To Read Aloud invites you to to take just ten minutes off, sit down with somebody you care about and share a passage of writing.