One of the literary surprises this year in Europe is set in a Vatican hospital. It's called “La casa degil sguardi,” “The house of gazes.” It's Italian poet Daniele Mencarelli's first novel.
DANIELE MENCARELLI
Author, “La casa degli sguardi”
“I've learned that there are places of seemingly great suffering that, in reality, manage to place a human being in contact with him- or herself, and with others. That's only if we're willing to search for part of ourselves in others, and to have a little faith in friendship, in alternativeness, in the importance of others.”
The events take place in Rome and in the Bambino Gesù children's hospital. It's a story of redemption, in which the protagonist, a young man struggling with alcohol addiction, rediscovers life while working as a janitor.
DANIELE MENCARELLI
Author, “La casa degli sguardi”
“This book has given me a certainty: that each one of us finds greatness, finds love, has important encounters. It's only our own openness to these encounters that perpetuates them and keeps them alive.”
The novel is a window looking at hope, an invitation to look without fear, to see the souls of the people around us.
DANIELE MENCARELLI
Author, “La casa degli sguardi”
“With so much technology and so many cellphones, we look a lot less at reality. I think it's a serious danger, because it's only through a gaze that the wonderful spread of relationships that belong to us as human beings is born.”
“La casa degli sguardi” is now available in Spanish and will soon be published in English, French and German.
Daniele Mencarelli has already published the prequel to this story in Italian. He was a finalist for the Strega Prize, Italy's most prestigious literary award.
Javier Martínez-Brocal
Translation: CT
