Ospiti
di Capello, Mario
Ospiti
Marco e Lara si incontrano sotto la luce soffusa di un ristorante di Stoccolma mentre fuori avanza la lunga notte nordica. Lui è nato a Torino, è cresciuto in Puglia e ora vive in Svezia. La sua esistenza è fatta di domande più che di risposte. Disincantato e introspettivo, scrive poesie, nutre una singolare passione per le apocalissi e si occupa di importazione di vini italiani. Quella che da fuori potrebbe sembrare una confortevole vita da expat risulta a lui stesso neutra, indecisa, scomoda. Anche Lara è un’italiana trapiantata in Svezia: ha lasciato qualche anno prima il suo lavoro da programmatrice a Perugia e crea app in una tech company in rapida espansione. Ha un figlio, Oscar, un bambino acuto e solitario che cresce da sola. Lara è brava nel suo lavoro: da poco ha messo a punto un’app per gli incontri, ed è proprio grazie a quella che conosce Marco. Marco e Lara hanno una cosa in comune: entrambi fuggono da un Paese e da una realtà con cui non riescono a scendere a patti. Da questo incontro nascerà un amore senza per sempre, senza promesse, forse impossibile: un’ansia indefinita li consuma, la stessa che li ha condotti lontano, che li spinge sempre oltre, che muta il loro quotidiano in una routine che non li appaga, dentro una città che ha fama di essere accogliente ed equa ma comincia a mostrare sorprendenti moti razzisti e la capacità di isolare chi non si conforma. Una città di lunghe ore blu, con cieli tersi e gelidi, strade innevate, teorie di alberi, un senso di eterno crepuscolo che comincia a gettare ombre sul mondo del futuro.
«Mario Capello racconta una storia minuscola come ogni storia d’amore, incastonata nella storia più vasta che ci sia – il clima di un pianeta che cambia. La distanza è la vera protagonista di Ospiti: fra culture, fra persone, fra come ci pensiamo e come, con gli anni, ci accorgiamo di essere.» Vincenzo Latronico
«Un romanzo sulla ricerca dell’identità: che non passa solo per il sé, ma per una comunità, per le relazioni, e per il grado di empatia o distanza che un popolo sa mettere in campo. Poi, certo, per l’amore.» Valeria Parrella
«Mario Capello possiede una scrittura innamorata. Questa luminosa storia di ghiacci e apocalissi vi porterà alla deriva.» Marco Peano
«In un periodo in cui gli scrittori guardano a sé stessi, Capello, invece, mette in gioco il tentativo, così antico da sembrare moderno, di fare voce all’altro, ricordandoci, con Michail Bachtin, come il romanzo sia “un discorso altrui in una lingua altrui”.» Demetrio Paolin, “La Lettura”
Mario Capello vive e lavora a Torino, dove è curatore di narrativa straniera per la collana Einaudi Stile libero della casa editrice Einaudi. Ha pubblicato un romanzo breve intitolato L’appartamento (Tunué, 2015).
Guests
A love story capable of foreseeing the future.
A story that begins in the snow, and continues in the cold, blue air of Stockholm, under the constant sensation of twilight.
“Suddenly, as she watched her son sleeping, she began to project futures into the air around her, like auras. … Stockholm, where one lived in rain and felt the arrival of fall just around the corner, Stockholm, with its bicycle paths and young families that seem to have sprung from advertisements for the good life, Stockholm, with its sea that felt like a river and its red boulevards and blue nights: it seemed too small to her now, not up to the task of living, somehow collapsed in on itself. She had decided. She had, hadn’t she?”
Marco was born in Turin, grew up in Puglia and now lives in Stockholm. His existence is composed of questions rather than of answers. He writes poems that he won’t even let his friends read, and he works in the field of Italian wine exports. What on the outside might seem like a comfortable expat life turns out to be neutral, indecisive, uncomfortable.
Lara is also an Italian living in Sweden, and working in a rapidly expanding tech company. She has a son, Oscar, a bright only child whom she is raising on her own after separating from her partner. Lara recently developed a dating app and it is thanks to this that she meets Marco. Living between languages and cultures, looking toward the future but weighed down by the past, both are full of desire but languish in a dull routine in a city that is starting to show its ability to isolate those who do not conform to its rules. The relationship that Lara and Marco experience is one without promises, and perhaps is impossible: it is under the siege of survival in modern times, which threaten to transform the purity of pristine ice into mud, and the deep and stark beauty of blue into gray.
Gaetano Moraca of Style Magazine/Corriere della sera has listed Ospiti as one of the must-read titles for February 2025:
“Set in Stockholm with its clear skies and intense ‘blue hour’ the stories of Lara and Marco, two Italian expats, intertwine in a complementary narration. Both are without a place to call home and share the loneliness of a lack of communication, the climatic crisis, and a return of neo-nazi violence in northern Europe.”
Author Vincenzo Latronico writes of the novel:
“… Distance is the true protagonist of Ospiti: between cultures, between people, and between how we see ourselves and how, years later, we realize that we are.”
Short excerpt in English:
He stood up, took a breath, and went out the door that led into a small vestibule.
Beyond, there was a red door that opened onto the cold, directly onto the chill of winter.
There, on the threshold—was there, anywhere, a better incarnation of that term?—he thought he should write about it once he got home. Yes, a poem made up of sensations, like the best of Sereni.
Then he gathered his courage and ran across that scant meter and pushed the panic bar. He expected the cold, and the light fell on him. He was forced to squint.
The sauna, he realized then, was in a twilight space, while outside there were a few hours of the real light of winter still in the sky. And as for the cold, it was as if the heat he had accumulated was protecting him, he felt it coming out of his skin, surrounding him like an aura.
Then he saw Lara. She was on the edge of the pond, wearing a green bikini and she looked back at him for a moment. He suddenly realized he was stupid for not bringing a swimsuit. What was he thinking? But by now he was there.
“Come on!” she called. She took the ladder and stepped down into the freezing water.
He ran – as fast as he could considering the towel around his waist – down the path to the pond. When he got there, he felt something like elation rising up in his head.
Mario Capello lives and works in Turin, Italy, where he is an editor of foreign fiction with the publishing house Einaudi, for the Einaudi Stile libero imprint. He has published a novella entitled L’appartamento (Tunué 2015).
Hôtes
Marco est né à Turin, a grandi dans les Pouilles et vit aujourd’hui à Stockholm. Son existence est faite de questions plutôt que de réponses. Il écrit des poèmes qu’il ne laisse même pas lire à ses amis et travaille dans le domaine de l’exportation de vins italiens. Ce qui, vu de l’extérieur, pourrait sembler être une vie d’expatrié confortable s’avère en réalité neutre, indécise, inconfortable. Lara aussi est italienne. Elle vit en Suède et travaille dans une entreprise technologique en pleine expansion. Elle a un fils, Oscar, un enfant unique brillant qu’elle élève seule après s’être séparée de son partenaire. Lara a récemment développé une application de rencontre et c’est grâce à celle-ci qu’elle fait la connaissance de Marco. Vivant entre deux langues et deux cultures, tournés vers l’avenir mais accablés par le passé, tous deux sont pleins de désir mais languissent dans une routine ennuyeuse, dans une ville qui commence à montrer sa capacité à isoler ceux qui ne se conforment pas à ses règles. La relation que Lara et Marco vivent est sans promesses, et peut-être impossible : elle est assiégée par la lutte pour la survie dans les temps modernes, qui menace de transformer la pureté de la glace immaculée en boue, et la beauté profonde et austère du bleu en gris.
« Mario Capello raconte une histoire minuscule comme toutes les histoires d’amour, enchâssinée dans l’histoire la plus vaste qui soit : le climat d’une planète en mutation. La distance est le véritable protagoniste de Ospiti : entre les cultures, entre les personnes, entre la façon dont nous nous percevons et celle dont, avec les années, nous nous rendons compte que nous sommes. » Vincenzo Latronico
« Un roman sur la recherche de l’identité : qui ne passe pas seulement par le soi, mais aussi par une communauté, par les relations, et par le degré d’empathie ou de distance qu’un peuple sait mettre en œuvre. Et puis, bien sûr, par l’amour. » Valeria Parrella
« Mario Capello possède une écriture amoureuse. Cette histoire lumineuse de glaces et d’apocalypses vous emportera au gré du courant. » Marco Peano
« À une époque où les écrivains se regardent eux-mêmes, Capello, au contraire, met en jeu la tentative, si ancienne qu’elle semble moderne, de donner la parole à l’autre, nous rappelant, avec Mikhaïl Bakhtine, que le roman est « un discours d’autrui dans une langue d’autrui ». » – Demetrio Paolin, La Lettura
Mario Capello vit et travaille à Turin, en Italie, où il est éditeur de fiction étrangère chez Einaudi, pour la collection Einaudi Stile libero. Il a publié une nouvelle intitulée L’appartamento (Tunué 2015).
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Casa editrice Publisher / ÉditeurBompiani
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Anno di pubblicazione Year of publication / Année de publication2025
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Numero di pagine Number of pages / ÉNombre de pagesr256
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ISBN9788830108349
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Prezzo Price / Prix18€
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Responsabile dei diritti
Copyright Manager / Responsable des droits
LeeAnn Bortolussi - Giunti l.bortolussi@giunti.it
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