Le cose non sono le cose

Much to Grandma Carmela's satisfaction, Learco Ferrari has graduated from college - Russian literature - and now dreams of publishing an autobiographical novel, The Last Rounds of Learco Ferrari. Since the road between dreams and the need to make a living is a long one, the aspiring writer works as a freelance language consultant for an import-export company, two to three days a week. It's a job he doesn't like; he'd rather play trumpet in the unlikely Bogoncelli band, musicians and storytellers. And to be with his girlfriend, Bassotuba, although she may be better off with the cat Paolo.... Original, irreverent, at once bittersweet and hilarious, Le cose non sono le cose shamelessly tells a story of human endurance in which the everyday becomes surreal.

Paolo Nori

Paolo Nori, who was born in Parma in 1963 and lives in Casalecchio di Reno, holds a degree in Russian literature and has published many books including Bassotuba non c’è (1999), Si chiama Francesca, questo romanzo (2002), Noi la farem vendetta (2006), La meravigliosa utilità del filo a piombo (2012), La piccola Battaglia portatile (2015), I russi sono matti (2019) , Che dispiacere. Un’indagine su Bernardo Barigazzi (2020), Sanguina ancora. L’incredibile vita di F. M. Dostoevskij (2021), e A cosa servono i gatti (2021).
He teaches literary translation from Russian at Iulm in Milan.
He translated and edited works by Pushkin, Gogol’, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gončarov, Leskov, Čechov, Chlebnikov, Charms, Bulgakov, Arkadij and Boris Strugackij, and Venedikt Erofeev.
He translated and edited for I Classici Feltrinelli Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol', Oblomov by Ivan A. Gončarov, and The Belkin tales by Aleksandr Pushkin.
In 2022 his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground was released for Garzanti, and in 2023 he wrote the preface to Gianni Celati's Le avventure di Guizzardi for Feltrinelli.
In 2023, Vi avverto che vivo per l'ultima volta. Noi e Anna Achmatova was published for Mondadori.
Also in 2023 he writes and performs Due volte che sono morto, a Chora Media podcast for Rai Play Sound. His latest book is Una notte al museo russo, published by Laterza in 2024.

Between 2023 and 2024, Mondadori republishes Le cose non sono le cose, Grandi Ustionati e Diavoli in the Oscar imprint. Also, Nori is curator for Discorso su Puškin by F. M. Dostoevsky, released in 2024.

His latest book is Una notte al museo russo, published by Laterza in 2024.