LAUNCH EVENT
THE BOOK OF HOMES
Il libro delle case
March 2026 | 6 PM (doors open at 5:50 PM)
Italian Cultural Institute, 710 Sansome St, San Francisco
To launch the first edition of La Piazza – San Francisco Italian Literary Festival, the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, in collaboration with the cultural association Librai in Corso, presents:
The Book of Homes
Il libro delle case
A hybrid event hosted at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, featuring the 2025 Strega Prize winner, Andrea Bajani, in a live conversation at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, via Zoom, with Sara Marinelli.
This presentation is in English.
Event open to the public | Registration required
A finalist for Italy’s prestigious Strega Prize, The Book of Homes is a remarkable achievement: a sprawling story that unfolds across much of Italy and yet that is told within the confines of the homes of its characters—and often from the point of view of the homes themselves: the many homes that shaped our main character named “I,” though the novel is in third-person; the home of I’s childhood companion, a turtle in her shell; the final homes of two figures whose murders shattered a country: a kidnapped, murdered politician; a poet dead in the street, run over by his own car. . . Both chilling and touching, The Book of Homes is an ambitious coming-of-age story unlike any other. One that jumps from home to home, upstairs to downstairs, decade to decade, and slowly reveals the blueprints—the puzzle pieces—to a life’s story.
Extraordinary, emotionally resonant, and utterly unique, The Book of Homes affirms Andrea Bajani’s status as a major force in contemporary international literature, and dares readers to consider what they’d be willing to give up in order to keep themselves.
ABOUT
Andrea Bajani is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Italian novelists. His breakthrough novel Se consideri le colpe (2007; If You Kept a Record of Sins, Archipelago, 2021) won several major literary prizes, including the Super Mondello and Brancati Prizes, and was praised internationally by critics and writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Richard Ford. His subsequent works include the award-winning novel Ogni promessa (2010), the short story collection La vita non è in ordine alfabetico (2014), and several poetry collections. His novel Il libro delle case (2021) was nominated for both the Premio Strega and the Premio Campiello and is being translated into numerous languages. His latest novel, The Anniversary (2025), won the prestigious Premio Strega and is currently being translated into more than twenty-five languages. Bajani is also a journalist and essayist whose work appears regularly in major Italian newspapers, and his books are published internationally by leading publishers including Penguin UK, The Other Press, Gallimard, and Deep Vellum.
SARA MARINELLI
Sara Marinelli is a San Francisco–based writer who grew up in Naples, Italy. Her writing in English is published in Chicago Quarterly Review, ZYZZYVA online, New American Writing, and Blue Mesa Review; her work in Italian appears in Nazione Indiana, Leggendaria, Alias. A recipient of the 2024–2025 Brown-Handler residency at the San Francisco Public Library, Sara is a Teaching Artist at the San Francisco Opera and an award-winning educator at the University of San Francisco, where she teaches Comparative Literature and Creative Writing.
Photo Credit: Adolfo Frediani