La fame del cigno

The Hunger of the Swan

A protagonist unlike any other: bruised, intelligent, awkward, clumsy and scatterbrained. An atmosphere that harkens back to Joe Lansdale’s terrifying swamps and his exhilarating humor. The portrait of a world where nobody can really claim to be honest.

Domenico Cigno, an obese 50-year-old sports editor for the south Italian edition of an important newspaper, lives by stuffing his face, has a cut-and-paste work ethic and makes occasional guest appearances on sports programs of little importance, which invite him on as the token, fat Naples fan. With neither wife nor children, a past as an aspiring Olympic boxer and a very respectable start to his career, Cigno has already left the best of his life behind. Now he lives in a small, sagging villa with a yard on the Domitio coast, a thin ribbon of Campania coastline stretching from Naples to the Lazio border, partially retracing the route of the ancient Via Domiziana: roughly 50 low, sandy kilometers squeezed between an icy, uncrowded sea and swampy countryside. Some consider it the Louisiana of southern Italy, with its silty canals, the legacy of 18^th-century land reclamation projects. Today it is a place rife with illegal immigration, disorganized Camorra bands and systematic ruin. Just a few days before Christmas, the body of a girl turns up in one of the canals. She may be a university student from Turin, an influencer and activist with hundreds of thousands of followers who came to this desolate province to investigate the conditions of Nigerian women. She has been missing for a few days and the whole country is looking for her. Cigno just happens to be the first on the scene and this just might be his chance for redemption. He decides to investigate, like a dinosaur determined not to go extinct, and attacks the story giving it everything he’s got. Which isn’t much.

Narrated with a voice that is both funny and bitter, this novel blends cynical survivalism and the human solidarity of people with nothing more to lose. A fierce critique of the old and new journalism, on a deeper level, this book also uncovers the discrepancy between what we would have liked to be and what we have become.

Sellerio

Sellerio is an independent publishing house founded in 1969 by Elvira Sellerio and the renowned photographer Enzo Sellerio. It was born and raised (and still based) in Palermo, with a very strong and classic literary tradition. We publish very successful Italian authors like Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Tabucchi, Antonio Manzini, Marco Malvaldi, Alessandro Barbero, Fabio Stassi, Alessandro Robecchi, Bernardo Zannoni, Giorgio Fontana, Dario Ferrari, Chiara Valerio, Maria Attanasio, Luisa Adorno. Sellerio publishes also and many international acclaimed authors like Graham Greene, P.G. Wodehouse, Hans Fallada, Stanislaw Lem, Yasmina Khadra, Alicia Giménez-Barlett, Seishi Yokomizo, Tayeb Salih, Mia Couto.

During the past twenty years Sellerio has taken an innovative path with big names such as Roberto Bolaño, Ben Lerner, Hanya Yanagihara, Masha Gessen, Scott Spencer, Pajtim Statovci, Alejandro Zambra, Jenny Erpenbeck, Sylvain Tesson.

Our main collection is La memoria, with its genre novels, crime novels and literary works connected by a broad and profound concept of memory. Our Contesto series is dedicated to a more contemporay and experimental narrative fiction and non fiction.

Sellerio

塞莱里奥出版社创立于1969年，由埃尔维拉·塞莱里奥（Elvira Sellerio）与恩佐·塞莱里奥（Enzo Sellerio，知名摄影师）当时投入少量资金创办，其创立构想源自与莱昂纳多·夏侠（Leonardo Sciascia）、人类学家安东尼诺·布蒂塔（Antonino Buttitta）之间的交流。四人是挚友，也是巴勒莫文化生活的重要人物。

该社出版了众多广受欢迎的意大利作家的作品，如安德烈·卡米莱里（Andrea Camilleri）、安东尼奥·塔布其（Antonio Tabucchi）、安东尼奥·曼齐尼（Antonio Manzini）、马尔科·马尔瓦尔迪（Marco Malvaldi）、亚历山德罗·巴尔贝罗（Alessandro Barbero）、法比奥·斯塔西（Fabio Stassi）、亚历山德罗·罗贝基（Alessandro Robecchi）、贝尔纳多·扎诺尼（Bernardo Zannoni）、乔治·丰塔纳（Giorgio Fontana）、达里奥·费拉里（Dario Ferrari）、基娅拉·瓦莱里奥（Chiara Valerio）、玛丽亚·阿塔纳西奥（Maria Attanasio）、路易莎·阿多尔诺（Luisa Adorno）等。塞莱里奥出版社还出版了许多享誉国际的作家作品，如格雷厄姆·格林（Graham Greene）、P.G.伍德豪斯（P.G. Wodehouse）、汉斯·法拉达（Hans Fallada）、斯坦尼斯瓦夫·莱姆（Stanisław Lem）、亚斯米娜·卡德拉（Yasmina Khadra）、阿丽西亚·希门内斯-巴特莱特（Alicia Giménez-Bartlett）、横沟正史（Seishi Yokomizo）、塔伊布·萨利赫（Tayeb Salih）、米亚·科托（Mia Couto）。

在过去二十年间，塞莱里奥出版社开启了一条创新之路，出版了罗贝托·波拉尼奥（Roberto Bolaño）、本·勒纳（Ben Lerner）、柳原汉雅（Hanya Yanagihara）、玛莎·格森（Masha Gessen）、斯科特·斯宾塞（Scott Spencer）、帕伊蒂姆·斯塔托维奇（Pajtim Statovci）、亚历杭德罗·桑布拉（Alejandro Zambra）、珍妮·厄本巴克（Jenny Erpenbeck）、西尔万·泰松（Sylvain Tesson）等重要作家的作品。

我们的主打丛书 »记忆 »（La memoria）收录类型小说、悬疑推理及纯文学作品，以宽泛而深刻的 »记忆 »理念贯穿始终。我们的 »语境 »（Contesto）丛书则致力于出版最具当代性与实验性的小说与非虚构作品。

Sellerio

La editorial Sellerio fue fundada en 1969 con una pequeña inversión de Elvira y Enzo Sellerio, un famoso fotógrafo, a partir de una idea surgida durante una conversación con Leonardo Sciascia y Antonino Buttitta, el antropólogo. Los cuatro son amigos y protagonistas de la vida cultural de Palermo.

Publica autores italianos de gran éxito como Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Tabucchi, Antonio Manzini, Marco Malvaldi, Alessandro Barbero, Fabio Stassi, Alessandro Robecchi, Bernardo Zannoni, Giorgio Fontana, Dario Ferrari, Chiara Valerio, Maria Attanasio y Luisa Adorno. Sellerio también publica a muchos autores de renombre internacional como Graham Greene, P.G. Wodehouse, Hans Fallada, Stanislaw Lem, Yasmina Khadra, Alicia Giménez-Barlett, Seishi Yokomizo, Tayeb Salih y Mia Couto.

Durante los últimos veinte años, Sellerio se ha embarcado en un camino innovador con grandes nombres como Roberto Bolaño, Ben Lerner, Hanya Yanagihara, Masha Gessen, Scott Spencer, Pajtim Statovci, Alejandro Zambra, Jenny Erpenbeck y Sylvain Tesson.

Nuestra serie principal es La memoria, que incluye novelas de género, relatos policíacos y obras literarias unidas por un concepto amplio y profundo de la memoria. Nuestra colección Contesto está dedicada a la ficción y al ensayo más contemporáneos y experimentales.