Le parole dei romanzi

What goes into a novel? How does a writer’s style take shape? Tics, idiosyncrasies, quirks, use of punctuation and adverbs, recurring expressions, anecdotes, relationship with dialect, rules, obsessions, quirks, enthusiasms, dedication, hard work, the role of school and education in general, the joys and sorrows of the creative process: all this can be discovered through dialogue with those who study language, discerning its peculiarities, its state of health, its evolution, and the seeds of its future.
Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Nicola Lagioia, Antonio Manzini, Francesco Piccolo, Lidia Ravera, Walter Siti, Domenico Starnone, and Sandro Veronesi engage in a dialogue with Paolo Di Paolo, linguist Valeria Della Valle, and other scholars on the theme of the language of novels, offering us a glimpse into the “workshop” where their writing takes shape. The volume concludes with two essays on Michela Murgia by Barbara Distefano and Mario Desiati.