Even presenting books is an art. Valentina Berengo reveals methods and tips

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Somewhere between an aperitif and a theater, there is a format that dominates the Italian cultural scene but that sometimes maintains an informality of a circle of friends, often guiltily lacking in budget, and that is the book presentation . With thousands of releases every year, and just as many events – every publication has at least one, and of course, contact with the reader is crucial – meeting in the late afternoon, or in the evening if it is summer and you are in a square and the heat of the day has given way to a pleasant breeze, in front of a stage, a platform, a table, a lectern, a stool, a lectern with two people who talk about the book just published by one of the two, is the most common thing in the social life of the few Italian readers. And, one suspects, also of many non-readers who end up swept away by the literary adventures of relatives and friends. A necessary event for the many who write and, one thinks, pleasant for those who might even be tempted to read .

But at the center there is a key figure, often overlooked, that of the presenter, the unsung hero called to tell without telling and to bring out the book in question with all the verve of the case, pique the reader's curiosity, act as a sidekick to the author who is good at speaking, encourage the shy, reveal without spoiling.Valentina Berengo , who also writes for Il Foglio, is perhaps the person who presents the most books in Italy. During the pandemic, with her "Scrittori a domicilio" she allowed the unfortunate releases of that period - or fortunate ones, given that they had all the spotlight on them - to enter the homes of very bored Italians and make their way into an imagination thirsty for novelty . Then the world returned to normal and Berengo, always very good, sharp, ironic, continued to competently occupy stages and festivals, keeping pace with the impetuous river of releases in a market like the current one, of "over-publishing, implemented in the hope that one of the titles launched will be particularly lucky and repay the investments made in all the others".

And now, in " Raccontare libri. L'arte dell'intervista letteraria ", an elegant volume published by Ronzani Editore, he has decided to share advice, observations and tips on how to proceed when you end up in the role of "puppeteer on stage", in that generative moment that is the dialogue with a writer.

The presentation, Berengo writes, serves to convey what “cannot be communicated by reading alone” and to “investigate the subjectivity of the creative act,” and the best way to do this is to follow your curiosity, ask real questions, ask what you really want to know. No pre-cooked formulas, they are deadly. The presentation is successful if you feel you have “captured the author’s intimate feelings and managed to convey them in dialogue” and the room responds, lights up . This is not the time for literary criticism, that is done on the pages of newspapers. And in the not rare circumstance in which you find yourself having to present a bad book, it is even more useful to have some guidelines and Berengo, with the solid pen that we know them, offers many of them, recounting his experiences, the illuminating interviews and the more tiring ones, which are sometimes those on books that are so popular that they become difficult to communicate.

Reading is essential, but a trick is to leave the last thirty pages for later, in order to keep curiosity alive and avoid leaking the details. Telling about books is also an honest portrait of a publishing world and its dynamics, of a sector that is losing copies and in which a strong reader, at least in Italy, is anyone who reads more than 12 books a year . It helps those who want to enter this market of imagination and interest, and it is certainly a great gesture of love for contemporary literature, for the stories that our present produces and that we continue to read and listen to, provided that someone good enough knows how to bring them out.

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