Good Italian books for intermediate level students

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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby garyb » Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:31 am

Cavesa wrote:A bit of a side question: what "lower" genres are popular among the italian writers, what can one look forward to? I would like to read Eco or Calvino one day but I need lots of other books usually (and italian is definitely on my list). Are there many polars? Historical fiction? fantasy? Thrillers? BDs?


There's a huge tradition of crime novels. Seems like for any given area of Italy there's at least one author who writes "gialli" set there. There are a couple of very famous literary historical fiction novels (Il nome della rosa, Il gattopardo) but it's not really my thing so I don't know how well represented it is as a "lower" genre. Same for fantasy; Dino Buzzati is famous for magical realism etc., very popular but again not my thing. Thriller books (and films) seem relatively rare. I know there are BDs but I've not checked them out. They're not as big as in France but they certainly exist.

Personally I enjoy "realistic" modern fiction, and there's quite a lot of that in Italian. Stories about families, relationships, experiences in the recent political and economic climate, that kind of thing.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:41 am

Thanks!

Well, historical novels tend to be of all quality, some are considered classics, such as Eco, others are more accessible. I didn't mean the whole genre as "lower". I don't even like the word "lower" that much but it unfortunately the only commonly used term uniting most genres I am interested in. Yeah, and similarily there is magical realism and fantasy (and many avid readers of magical realism look down upon us, fantasy readers), sometimes the borders are,in my honest opinion, totally arbitrary.

Could you give me a few tips on those modern authors? I might be interested in them, even though it is not always my cup of tea (I tend to be so fed up with reality so I am usually trying to escape). But I would like to try some of the popular books, when I finally get to Italian.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby tarvos » Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:00 am

All right, I've bought me two books using bol.com (e-books, since they don't sell actual physical books in Italian, sadly). Thanks for the recommendations. I'll keep the others in mind when I get through these two, because reading in Italian is still fairly slow at higher levels.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby kimchizzle » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:44 pm

I would recommend you to check out Alessandro Baricco, he is a contemporary Italian author. His style of writing suits an intermediate reader well, and is full of beautiful rhythms and alliterations in prose. The first book of his I would recommend, is Seta, it is a short novel and the story in very good. I read the French translation of the book in one sitting when I was at an intermediate level in French, I enjoyed it so much. It is still one of my favorite books. The other book I would recommend is Oceano Mare, which is more than size of a regular novel, and has a great story too.

If I ever decided to learn Italian, one of the reasons would be to read Alessandro Baricco novels in the original language.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby numerodix » Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:30 pm

kimchizzle wrote:I would recommend you to check out Alessandro Baricco, he is a contemporary Italian author. His style of writing suits an intermediate reader well, and is full of beautiful rhythms and alliterations in prose. The first book of his I would recommend, is Seta, it is a short novel and the story in very good. I read the French translation of the book in one sitting when I was at an intermediate level in French, I enjoyed it so much. It is still one of my favorite books. The other book I would recommend is Oceano Mare, which is more than size of a regular novel, and has a great story too.

If I ever decided to learn Italian, one of the reasons would be to read Alessandro Baricco novels in the original language.


For those who know Baricco I wonder if his style of writing is similar to some other author people know of. I recall when I read Seta and Oceano Mare I was thinking I'd never read stories written this way, in such a dreamy fact-fiction melange, half dream half awake sort of.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby Spoonary » Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:39 pm

kimchizzle wrote:If I ever decided to learn Italian, one of the reasons would be to read Alessandro Baricco novels in the original language.


I read Novecento by Baricco and really enjoyed it. I didn't understand everything but as it's a monologue and is therefore very 'oral' in nature, I found it easy to follow. Also, it's quite short.
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby Gaedheal92 » Fri Jul 31, 2015 3:46 pm

The language in Le ceneri di Angela , the translation of Angela's Ashes seems to be quite simple, the narration is by a child. I'll probably get around to it in the next month.

http://www.amazon.it/ceneri-Angela-Gli-Adelphi-ebook/dp/B0067MKSDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438357246&sr=1-1&keywords=le+ceneri+di+angela
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby Spoonary » Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:25 am

Buonasera lettori!

I came back to this thread this evening to get some recommendations of which books to buy when I'm in Italy this December.

If anyone has anything else to share that hasn't been mentioned yet, I would be extremely grateful. I will read just about anything, as long as it captures my attention and doesn't make my brain melt, so fire away :mrgreen:
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby dampingwire » Sun Nov 27, 2016 12:09 am

Spoonary wrote:If anyone has anything else to share that hasn't been mentioned yet, I would be extremely grateful. I will read just about anything, as long as it captures my attention and doesn't make my brain melt, so fire away :mrgreen:


Well I have no idea what might capture and hold your attention but I read Giulio Leoni's I Delitti Della Luce a few years ago and I definitely enjoyed it. It's set in the 1300s.

Don't forget to checkout the foreign language section of your local library ...
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Re: Good Italian books for intermediate level students

Postby shandra » Sun Nov 27, 2016 1:25 am

dampingwire wrote:
Spoonary wrote:If anyone has anything else to share that hasn't been mentioned yet, I would be extremely grateful.
I read Giulio Leoni's I Delitti Della Luce a few years ago and I definitely enjoyed it. It's set in the 1300s.
Delitti della luce is a book from a series (I read two of them) that isn't simply set in the 1300s. It has as main character Dante Alighieri (author of Divina Commedia) solving mysterious murders and political conspiracies! :)
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