ViaConvento in Quartu, literary meetings with Amendola and Chiappe
Sunday and Monday appointments with the authors of "The Imam Must Not Die" and "Equal for All"
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Two authors, two novels, two ways of telling the world: Maria Francesca Chiappe with Uguale per tutti (Castelvecchi, 2025) and Vincenzo Amendola with L'imam non deve morire (Mondadori, 2025).
They will be the protagonists on Sunday 25 and Monday 26 May in Quartu as part of the ViaConvento literary review, in two evenings that will be held in the Ex Caserma in via Roma and in the Ex Convento dei Cappuccini.
Domenica Maria Francesca Chiappe and “Equal for all”
Cagliari, the white city, is tinged with shadows in the new novel by Maria Francesca Chiappe, Uguale per tutti, the third chapter of her Cagliari series, which in collaboration with the Dorian association will be presented in a national premiere on Sunday 25 May at 7 pm in the former Caserma in via Roma, 30, in Quartu Sant'Elena. The author, journalist and councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Cagliari, returns with her sharp pen, capable of transforming news into narration and the places of the city into living characters. In conversation with her is Ambra Pintore, who will not limit herself to leading the meeting but will intertwine words and music, accompanied by Roberto Scala on bass, Massimo Satta on guitar and Diego Milia on violin and sax. Because, in Cagliari, even a mystery novel needs a soundtrack.
In Uguale per tutti Chiappe weaves a plot that unfolds between three symbolic places of the city: the desolate beach of Giorgino, the hill of Monte Urpinu, the alleys of the Marina . Three crimes, three stories: a dead man on the beach, a corpse on the heights of Monte Urpinu, a girl who, after a party in the wealthy city of Via Milano, reports a sexual assault. The protagonists who have become dear to the readers of the series investigate: Annalisa Medda, a tenacious journalist who never gives up, and Fernando Corallo, head of the Mobile with an infallible instinct but a heart marked by the awareness that the truth is a luxury. "Three threads that knot together, but are not easily untied - explains Chiappe -. It is an investigation into justice, the kind that should be the same for everyone, but which often stumbles". Despite the realism of the places and atmospheres, the author is keen to point out: "It's all the fruit of my imagination". An imagination that, however, feeds on her experience as a reporter, someone who knows how to dig into the bowels of reality without fear of getting her hands dirty. The writing of the novel, begun immediately after the second chapter of the series, was interrupted to tell the true story of Beniamino Zuncheddu, but Chiappe returned to weave her web with a Cagliari that is both beautiful and bloody. In which places are not just a backdrop but characters: who talk, plot, hide. “I wanted to tell the story of a city that I love, but that sometimes hurts,” confides the author. A novel that bites the conscience, like a knife in the night.
Monday Amendola and the Mediterranean that speaks to Europe
The following day, Monday 26 May at 6 pm, the Sala Affreschi of the Ex Convento dei Cappuccini in Quartu welcomes Vincenzo Amendola and his L'imam non deve morire (Mondadori, 2025), a novel that is both a political thriller and a profound reflection on the dialogue between cultures. In conversation with the journalist Giovanni Follesa, Amendola brings to the stage a work that crosses Lebanon, Libya and Italy, intertwining a relatively distant past and the present to talk about a Mediterranean that today, like yesterday, is the cradle of conflicts but also of hopes. The meeting, hosted in a place that over the years has established itself as the heart of Sardinian culture, promises to be a journey into the complexities of our time.
Amendola, a leading figure in the Italian political landscape, has built a career that has seen him as regional secretary of the Democrats of the Left in Campania (2006-2007), deputy (2013-2018), undersecretary for Foreign Affairs (2016-2018), minister for European Affairs in the Conte II government (2019-2021) and undersecretary with responsibility for European Affairs in the Draghi government (2021-2022). Re-elected to the Chamber in 2022, he is known for his convinced Europeanism and his commitment to issues such as ius soli, equal marriage, euthanasia and social policies. Married to the journalist of Moroccan origin Karima Moual, father of two children, Jamila and Carlo Karim, Amendola brings to his writing the same passion that drives his political career.
L'imam non deve morire is a novel that moves between the wounds of the Middle East and the hopes for a possible dialogue. At the center is the figure of Musa Sadr, the Shiite imam who died in 1978, a symbol of a bridge between faiths and peoples in an era marked by extremism. "I built a story that starts from afar to talk about the Middle East today," says Amendola. "The traps of hatred are always there, but there are figures who, then as now, ask for peace and coexistence." The novel is not just a thriller but an invitation to reflect on Europe and its relationship with the Mediterranean. "Europe is afraid to look to the South, and this is a mistake," says the author. "Turning our backs on the Mediterranean means denying our history."
Sardinia, with its vocation as a bridge between cultures and its ability to combine identity and innovation, is a shining example for Amendola. “This land lives on culture and love for its roots, but it must continue to look beyond,” he emphasizes. In the Capuchin Convent, a place that breathes history and openness, his story becomes a warning: the Mediterranean, with its scars and its beauties, is also our history. Ignoring it means losing a part of ourselves.
(Online Union)
