From Francesca Albanese to Salvo Toscano, new releases in bookstores

It's a journey marked by ten people who accompanied the author to understand the history, present, and future of Palestine in the book 'When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine' by Francesca Albanese , published by Rizzoli.

The spirit of a place is shaped by the people who inhabit it, by the stories that intersect in its streets. And this is especially true for Palestine, the custodian of epochal historical transitions and the scene of one of the most painful chapters in contemporary history. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, one of the most knowledgeable and authoritative figures on the legal status and situation of Palestinians—loved (or hated) around the world for the integrity and passion with which she fights for the rights of a people too long oppressed—offers in this volume stories that interweave information, reflections, emotions, and intimate experiences. Hind Rajab, who died at the age of six in the bombs that destroyed Gaza, opens our eyes to what it means to be a child in a country where children have no safe haven that respects their roots. Abu Hassan guides us through the places of toil and suffering on the outskirts of Jerusalem; and George, a close friend, shows us the wonder and absurdities of Jerusalem. Alon Confino, a leading Holocaust scholar, helps us understand the conflicts that can fester in the heart of a Jew who witnesses apartheid and wants its end. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon who came from London to experience the most unimaginable horror, tells us what he witnessed; and Malak Mattar, a young artist who traveled the other way, shares the story of those who had to leave Gaza to express themselves or survive. And then there are Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Eyal Weizman, Gabor Maté, and one of the people closest to Francesca in life, as well as in her search for an awareness capable of translating into action.

Stefania S.'s new romance novel, "Red. Colpo di fulmine," arrives in bookstores just in time to become a summer favorite. The novel continues the "Love Me Love Me" series, which the author began in 2023 and is published by Sperling & Kupfer.

Scarlett Crimson lives with her head in the clouds and has always found refuge in her imaginary world. In Roslin, the small Scottish village where she lives, everything seems gray and predictable. But during the summer of her seventeenth birthday, something changes. A small job in Edinburgh, at the café near her grandmother's house, brings Scarlett back to the place that still smells of childhood and happy memories. She's spent every summer there, carefree running and writing stories to avoid feeling alone. Yet, this time is different. This time there's Ace, who seems to be the only one capable of seeing her for who she really is. A model college student, brilliant and self-confident, he doesn't believe in dreams and has long since stopped letting his imagination carry him away. But behind that perfect boy facade lies something else. Between untold truths, shadows of the past, and unconquered fears, Scarlett must learn that growing up means facing pain. And that fantasy can offer shelter, but sooner or later the time comes to face reality.

Sellerio brings back to the bookshops 'Missione Confidentiale', the spy story that Graham Greene published for the first time in 1939 .

"Confidential Mission" is one of the English writer's finest "entertainments," in the vein of spy stories like The Istanbul Train and A Gun for Sale, a thriller peppered with unexpected twists and desperate actions. D. is a secret agent on a mission to London. He comes from a country ravaged by civil war. Sent by the legitimate government, he is forced to act as the weaker side because the coup plotters, it is understood, have powerful backers. He is in London to obtain a coal supply that the republican government needs more than tanks. He carries with him secret documents with which to introduce himself to a group of extremely wealthy businessmen. His enemies—visible and invisible—do everything they can to prevent him, but the republican strategy soon becomes ambiguous, mysteriously convoluted: D. is drawn into an endless web of intrigue and corruption that especially involves the people he should trust most. The only person who is truly his friend is the most unlikely: the very young, capricious Rose. Besides, D. isn't a true secret agent either, either by profession or by vocation. He's a middle-aged professor of Romance languages with a tragic past, aware that the leaders he fights for are not immune from guilt and misdeeds. Graham Greene wrote the novel in 1939, in the wartime climate of the Second World War. But the power with which the author draws us into that world of psychological insecurity and ethical dilemmas stems from a narratively perfect combination of factors: the couple of protagonists, D. and young Rose, who embodies all the ambiguity of love, and above all the anti-epic banality of the spy world, which is the twist Greene gave to "All Things Confidential."

'Il gioco della Storia' , the new investigation by Bernie Gunther, the most dishonest detective ever created by the Scottish writer Philip Kerr (1956-2018), was released on July 15th in Fazi's Darkside series.

This mystery, previously unpublished in Italy, is set in 1954. Bernie Gunther is in Havana, living under a false identity and working for Meyer Lansky. He decides to flee to Haiti with a young prostitute who is actually an anti-Batista resistance fighter. But the girl has killed a police captain, and when they are stopped, Bernie is arrested as well: he is still wanted for murder in Germany. He soon finds himself in CIA custody, where he is interrogated repeatedly. Transferred to Germany, the interrogations continue, and Bernie retraces his exploits during the war years. Although he has always been deeply anti-Nazi, Gunther has a shady past: he was a man of Heydrich, one of the cruelest architects of the Holocaust, and played a shady role in the decades-long hunt for Erich Mielke, a former communist dissident who later rose to positions of great power in the "new" GDR. His cynicism tinged with romanticism, his will to survive and his “elastic” morality will lead him to make choices that will in some way influence the course of history.

Paolo Benanti's essay 'Is Man an Algorithm? The Meaning of the Human and Artificial Intelligence' , published by Castelvecchi, offers a profound reflection on the relationship between progress and humanity.

The myth of Ulysses teaches us that the human search for meaning is guided by intelligence, in its two forms: νοῦς and μῆτις, intuition and practice. The synergy of these faculties gave rise to the great inventions that have marked our species, starting with the "great invention of language." Today, however, language no longer seems to be an exclusively human prerogative: Artificial Intelligence, in the form of ChatGPT and Large Language Models (LLM), has introduced a computational language that reconfigures speech and thought. Paolo Benanti leads us in a brief and evocative ethical reflection on the paradox of technology, while acknowledging its potential: this extension of our "artificial naturalness" seems increasingly less oriented toward mapping reality and increasingly prone to confusing us. Drawing on computer science, philosophy, and spirituality—from Turing to Searle, from Scheler to Jonas—Benanti advances a simple yet disruptive proposal, capable of restoring centrality to the human dimension. Recovering a "humanist bias" today does not mean repudiating progress, but rather reaffirming its most authentic challenge: living a good and conscious life. Algorithmic intelligence must once again become a tool in our hands, at the service of full human dignity. Universities today have the fundamental task of creating new "cultural landscapes" where we can rediscover the meaning of our creations and our lives.

The historical novel 'Stella 111', the cult book by German writer Lutz Seiler about the fall of the Berlin Wall, acclaimed worldwide and awarded several times, arrives in Italy from Utopia Editore.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, young Carl, a student and worker living away from home, is called back to his hometown by his parents, who are about to leave East Germany. Even for the boy, who should be watching over the family home and its legacy while his mother and father flee, it's hard to remain in a country that no longer exists. And so, a bricklayer by training but pursuing a poetic existence, Carl arrives in Berlin, a veritable outpost, where he is welcomed by a band of young anarchists and, to survive, takes on jobs often bordering on legality, until he manages to publish his first poems. Little by little, Berlin regains normality and Carl, torn between the before and the after, between everyday life and literary ambition, while his parents chase the dreams of a stolen youth between Europe and America, surrenders to a melancholic maturity, far from the memories of East Germany, above all Stern 111, the family radio, a star whose numbers illuminated the shadows of an entire childhood.

A macabre discovery, an abandoned villa on the outskirts of Palermo, and a dark past. In "The Barraco Case" (Newton Compton) by Sicilian writer and journalist Salvo Toscano , the Corsaro brothers immerse themselves in an investigation that will lead them to uncover many buried secrets.

In a villa abandoned for many years on the outskirts of Palermo, the mummified body of a woman is discovered, having been hidden for a very long time in a cavity. Crime reporter Fabrizio Corsaro immediately takes an interest in the case. The body is identified as that of Agnese Barraco, a dental hygienist originally from Trapani, who vanished on a rainy day in 2003. When a person suspected of being responsible for the death is arrested, Fabrizio's brother, lawyer Roberto Corsaro, begins investigating the matter for professional reasons. Delving into a forgotten past, the Corsaro brothers' dual investigation will uncover the many secrets of Agnese's mysterious and highly private life. Among them, the most intimate and hidden: that she was once a witch.

Pino Ippolito Armino's 'History of Southern Italy' , published by Laterza, identifies and recounts seven moments that shaped the identity of Southern Italy, from the disastrous outcome of the Jacobin revolution of 1799 to the birth of a fictitious 'Northern Question', to help us unravel some of our country's most tormented questions.

Three centuries ago, exceptional and unpredictable circumstances united Sicily and the rest of Southern Italy under a single kingdom. The peace treaty signed at The Hague on February 20, 1720, quickly brought Bourbon rule over both states. If we were to take a snapshot of that historical moment, we would see Naples among the most populous cities in Europe, a territory brimming with potential within an empire that reached as far as Latin America, a vibrant cultural life and intellectuals engaged in dialogue with Paris. Three centuries later, the landscape is completely different. What went wrong? What events shaped the fate of Southern Italy to the point of making it the largest backward region in Europe? Why do we still struggle to reverse course and imagine a different future? Is it the fault of a lazy and indolent people, of corrupt and indifferent ruling classes, or of what the neo-Bourbons call a 'colonial conquest' by the North?

'A Murder in Paris', the second crime novel by English writer Matthew Blake , following his successful debut with 'Anna O', has finally arrived on the shelves, published by La Nave di Teseo.

June 1945, the war has just ended, the Nazi concentration camps have been liberated, and all the French prisoners held there are returning to Paris. To welcome them, and to ensure that no collaborators are hiding among them, they must all spend three days in what was before the war the luxurious Hotel Lutetia, the finest on the Left Bank. In rooms converted into dormitories, the alleged prisoners are examined and interrogated before being allowed to return to their homes and families. Among them are two young women, Sophie and Josephine, but only one will emerge alive from the room they share in the hotel. Eighty years later, in 2025, Josephine Benoit, now ninety-six and a celebrated painter, shows up at the reception desk of the renovated and luxurious Lutetia. There, she confesses that her name is Sophie Leclerc and that she committed a murder, long ago, in room 11 of that very hotel. The woman suffers from dementia, and her granddaughter Olivia, who lives in London and works as a psychotherapist specializing in memory recovery, is convinced that her grandmother is simply confused and that, due to her illness, she is mixing reality and fantasy in her mind. But perhaps the situation isn't so simple, and Olivia soon finds herself entangled in a mystery rooted in the past but still lingering on the streets of Paris—and one that could be lethal.