Ejercicios de memoria

Despite having gone blind at the age of ninety-one, Andrea Camilleri was not intimidated by the dark, just as he was never afraid of the blank page. The Sicilian author wrote dictating until the end of his days, and with orality he found a new way of telling stories. From the beginning of his blindness, he applied himself to the exercise of memory with the same iron discipline with which he had worked all his life. With persistent clarity, he dedicated himself to stringing together the memories of a long and prolific life, displaying a unique mental acuity and his particular vision of the world. This book was born as an exercise to practice this new way of writing, a kind of vacation booklet: twenty-three stories conceived in twenty-three days. In them, the author recalls key episodes in his life, portrays the artists he held most esteem and reviews the recent history of Italy, which he has lived in the first person. A literary game where sounds, conversations and images intertwine that you can never get out of your head.