Came across a really interesting survey of contemporary Italian writing on BBC 4’s Open Book programme recently. Struck me all the more as by chance I’m reading Eva Dorme by Francesca Melandri who was one of the contributors.
One point made was the in the last five years Italians are reading less when many other countries in Europe are reading more. Listen to the interviewers summation of one of the Italian contributors’ explanation about Italian’s fascination with technology (i.e. mobile phones!). Made me chuckle!
Paul Martin Writer 