In 2017, lies have become “products,” and mendacity has embedded itself into social, political, and even cultural life. The challenge for our time, then, is to find truth amid humanity’s infinite complexities and contradictions.
VENICE – Claudio Magris is one of Italy’s – indeed, Europe’s – most graceful and compelling modern writers. He is the author of more than a hundred books, and has been awarded high literary honors in many countries. His novel Blameless, newly published in English, should not be interpreted as anticipating Donald Trump’s presidency, because such a cosmopolitan and refined author would not wish to give Trump a first – let alone a second – thought. But, as Anne Milano Appel writes in her introductory note to this English translation, Magris is always “after the truth”; and truth is precisely what seems to have gone missing in an era in which Trump’s election was possible.
VENICE – Claudio Magris is one of Italy’s – indeed, Europe’s – most graceful and compelling modern writers. He is the author of more than a hundred books, and has been awarded high literary honors in many countries. His novel Blameless, newly published in English, should not be interpreted as anticipating Donald Trump’s presidency, because such a cosmopolitan and refined author would not wish to give Trump a first – let alone a second – thought. But, as Anne Milano Appel writes in her introductory note to this English translation, Magris is always “after the truth”; and truth is precisely what seems to have gone missing in an era in which Trump’s election was possible.