Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 729 The Mystery Veil
The next morning, Yu Dong got up early. He slept well last night and felt very energetic.

In the restaurant he met Rosie.

"Teacher Yu, here." Luo Xi beckoned to Yu Dong: "Do you want me to help you get breakfast?"

"No, I'll do it myself."

Yu Dong smiled, turned around to get some food, and then went to sit next to Rossi.

The hotel they stayed in was small. The restaurant was half indoors and half outdoors. Yu Dong looked outside the hotel while eating dumplings. Compared with yesterday afternoon, there were more vehicles parked in front of the hotel today.

As the awards ceremony approached, more people came.

There were also other people eating in the restaurant. When Yu Dong was talking to Rossi just now, many people looked at them.

They could probably guess Yu Dong's identity, after all, he was the only Asian who came to the Grinzaner Carver Awards Ceremony.

The two chatted for a while, and suddenly a tall middle-aged man came over, he nodded to Yu Dong, "Excuse me, are you Yu?"

The visitor spoke Italian, and Yu Dong couldn't understand it at all, so he could only turn to Rossi who was next to him for help.

Rossi helped translate, "He asked if you are YU?"

Yu Dong nodded, "Well, I am, I don't know who you are?"

"I'm Sergio Giovanni, please forgive me if I bother you." Sergio looked at the empty chair next to him, "May I sit down?"

Yu Dong nodded, "Of course."

After being seated, Rossi said to Dong, "He should be the author of "The Last Time."

Rossi was able to know Sergio Giovanni not because of how famous he was, but because Rossi had seen the list of guests participating in the Grizzana Carver Literary Award Ceremony in advance, and remembered Sergio Giovanni The name of Gio Giovanni and his work "The Last Hours".

Yu Dong didn't know Sergio Giovanni, nor had he heard of the novel "The Last Time".

Italy has not produced any well-known writers in recent years, and the ones Yu Dong is more impressed with are Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco, both of whom have passed away.

There are not many writers out of the circle, and there are relatively few works of Italian writers translated in China, so Yu Dong doesn't know much.

However, Yu Dong still greeted the other party very politely, "Hi, Mr. Giovanni, nice to meet you."

Sergio Giovanni stared at Yu Dong for a while with a smile, he was very curious about this world-famous young writer.

YU has become famous in Italy in the past few years. After the movie "Second World" was released a few years ago, YU has gradually become familiar.

At the beginning, Sergio had heard of YU's name, but he always regarded him as a writer of popular novels.

In fact, most Italian readers at that time only regarded YU as a science fiction writer.

Later, people gradually came into contact with YU's other works - non-sci-fi literary works.

From Sergio's point of view, YU is too young to be worthy, isn't it said that he is already in his 30s, why does he still look like someone in his early 20s.

Sergio remembered when he was 30 years old, when he was already bald on the top of his head.

He somewhat believed the words of the Chinese who lived in the same town as him. Maybe Hong was really 50 years old, and Chinese people looked very young.

Yu Dong looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, feeling a little strange, for half a minute, this guy just looked at him without saying a word.

"Ahem, Mr. Giovanni, did you arrive this morning?"

Sergio tidied up the messy thoughts in his head, and said with a smile: "I arrived last night, around ten o'clock, thanks to the chef for cooking me a sumptuous dinner so late. This year, sei publishing house The income should be very considerable, and the food is much better than last year."

It was the first time for Yu Dong to come here, so he didn't comment on the specifications of the food. He just said, "The food in Piedmont exceeded my expectations."

Sergio joked, "As long as you lower your expectations, there are plenty of delicious food anywhere in the world."

"It makes sense." Yu Dong nodded.

"If you're not in a hurry to leave, you can take a good stroll around. Although Italy is a very boring country, the scenery of Piedmont is worth seeing..."

Sergio didn't seem to have any special purpose in coming over to strike up a conversation. Even if he chatted with Yu Dong, he chatted nonsense, and there was no theme.

But Sergio's talk was very interesting. Although he talked a lot, he didn't think it was boring.

After chatting for about twenty minutes, Sergio looked behind Yu Dong and said in surprise, "Mr. Eco."

Hearing this, Yu Dong turned around, and then saw a man and a woman.

The man is in his 60s, of medium build, with a big beard, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, with the corners of his eyes drooping, and there is an elusive cunning in his eyes.

The woman standing next to him was about 40 years old, slightly shorter than him, with short white hair, very intellectual, and it could be seen that she should have been very beautiful when she was young.

Before he could open his mouth, Sergio took the initiative to introduce him, "YU, this is Mr. Umberto Eco, a very famous Italian scholar, and he is also a semiotician."

Sergio bit the word "semiotician" very hard, and the turmoil caused by "The Da Vinci Code" naturally spread to Italy.

Yu Dong looked at the old man in front of him and raised his eyebrows. When Sergio called for someone just now, he hadn't reacted yet. Now that he heard the full name, he immediately knew who it was.

Umberto is indeed a very powerful semiotician with a high status in academia, and he is well known to the public because he wrote a novel called "The Name of the Rose".

The novel "The Name of the Rose" was published 20 years ago. When Yu Dong wrote "The Da Vinci Code", he had read "The Name of the Rose" in order to better study semiotics.

"Hello, Mr. Eco, I have read several of your books and benefited a lot."

Umberto nodded with a smile, "I've already read "The Da Vinci Code". It's hard to imagine that you, as a person outside the industry, can have such a deep understanding of semiotics. It can be seen that you must A lot of research has been done.”

"In fact, most of the knowledge related to semiotics in the novel comes from the materials collected by a friend of mine. He is very interested in semiotics and has spent a lot of time studying semiotics."

"Oh?" Umberto raised his eyebrows, "Is this friend of yours also a writer?"

"His name is Dan Brown, and he's a musician."

"Musicians... really interesting." Umberto smiled, and turned to Yu Dong to introduce the woman standing next to him, "This is Anita Laha, a consultant for Edizioni E/O Publishing House .”

"Hello, Miss Raha."

Anita Raha nodded with Yu Dong, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Yu, it is our honor that you can come to Italy. I have also read "The Da Vinci Code". Regarding your unconstrained ideas, I admire it from the bottom of my heart. You can always master different types of works, maybe that's why you are so popular with Italian readers."

Yu Dong was not surprised at Anita Raha's flattery about herself. Umberto said that she was a consultant of the publishing house, and she probably also took care of the business of attracting authors?

"Miss Raha was joking, the real master is Mr. Umberto by your side."

Umberto smiled and waved his hands, "Let's sit down and chat, there are no other activities this morning anyway."

Yu Dong nodded and sat down with him. He also wanted to have a good chat with Umberto.

……

After a few people chatted in the house for half an hour, they moved into the yard.

Grinzana is quite hot in summer, but after the shed is set up, the breeze blows from a distance, which is quite pleasant.

Because "The Da Vinci Code" has just been released, and Umberto is a master of semiotics, the content of the chat between the few people mainly revolves around semiotics.

Although Sergio and Anita don't know much about semiotics, the knowledge of semiotics is easy to explain in simple terms, and some seemingly professional things can be explained very clearly.

Because semiotics is not created out of thin air, it is also linked together, and the logic of each layer is very strong.

Chatting and chatting, they began to chat about literature again.

Umberto opened his mouth first and talked about Chinese literature. Chinese literature has been very popular in Italy in recent years. Both industry professionals and ordinary readers are fond of talking about the few Chinese writers who have suddenly become popular.

But in fact, in Italy, neither readers nor scholars know much about Chinese literature. Even Umberto, his understanding of Chinese literature is limited to a few of them.

When Yu Dong mentioned Italian literature, Umberto said with emotion, "Italian literature has been scarce in recent years, and there are fewer and fewer young people writing."

Sergio coughed embarrassingly, "In addition to the author, there are fewer and fewer readers who are willing to spend time reading books, and young people are more willing to watch TV."

Umberto glanced at Sergio and said, "Actually, there is a young writer who has performed very well in recent years, a female writer named Elena Ferrante."

Elena Ferrante?

Yu Dong looked at Umberto in surprise, Yu Dong was very familiar with this name, but in Yu Dong's impression Elena Ferrante should have become famous more than ten years later.

He remembered that the first part of the Naples tetralogy that made Ferrante famous all over the world, "My Brilliant Girlfriend", should have been published around 2013.

Could it be that Ferrante is already very famous in Italy now?

But Sergio's next words denied this possibility.

"Elena Ferrante? I don't think I've heard of it much."

Umberto explained with a smile: "She doesn't publish many works, and it's normal that you haven't heard of them, but from her works, I can see her potential, and her future has absolutely unlimited possibilities."

Sergio was not too convinced by Umberto's hype about a newcomer, but he couldn't say anything, so he could only pursed his lips and looked at the coffee cup in front of him.

"What novels has this Ms. Elena Ferrante written?" Yu Dong asked.

"For example, "Sinister Love", a novel she wrote ten years ago."

Yu Dong nodded. It seemed to be Ferrante's novel, but he hadn't read it. He didn't expect it to be written ten years ago.

Yu Dong didn't know much about Elena Ferrante. In fact, not only him, but people in the industry didn't know much about Ferrante.

Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym, she—actually, you can’t use her, after all, Ferrante himself has never shown up, and everyone doesn’t even know whether Ferrante is a man or a woman, only from the pen name and writing Style deduces that she is probably a female writer.

However, when Umberto mentioned Elena Ferrante just now, he mentioned Ferrante very clearly as a female writer.

Is this Umberto's own deduction, or did Umberto know Elena Ferrante personally?
Yu Dong glanced at Umberto and suddenly became interested.

Everyone is curious, and Yu Dong is no exception. He also wants to know who is this mysterious writer who has never shown himself before.

"Mr. Eco knows this Elena Ferrante?" Yu Dong asked.

Umberto nodded, "Yes."

"If you have a chance, you can ask her out to chat with everyone. I am also very interested in the new generation of writers in your country."

Yu Dong noticed that when Rossi translated this sentence to Umberto, Umberto unconsciously glanced at Anita Raha next to him, but Raha suddenly lowered his head, as if She didn't want others to see her expression, she was covering up something.

Seeing this situation, Yu Dong squinted his eyes, and he suddenly found that things became interesting.

Could it be that Anita and Ferrante also knew each other, and even... even she was Ferrante?
Yu Dong looked at Anita with interest for a while, and then said with a smile, "Miss Raha, what do you usually do in the publishing house?"

Anita raised her head, pushed her glasses, and said with a smile: "As a consultant, I actually have very little work, and I don't have to stay in a publishing house. I usually finish my work at home, and I also do a little translation work. "

"Oh, then which language do you translate?"

"German to Italian."

Umberto next to him interjected: "Anita mainly translates the works of Christa Wolf."

Christa Wolf... Yu Dong couldn't help showing a smile, he knew Christa Wolf, she was a very well-known female writer in Germany.

Speaking of which, the style of Ferrante's works is really similar to that of Christa Wolff.

The possibility that Anita Raha is Ferrante has increased a little.

……

Later, Yu Dong kept asking questions about Ferrante, but then Umberto and the others were reluctant to talk about it and began to change the subject.

Seeing them change the subject, Yu Dong didn't continue to ask, otherwise, it would be too strange.

In fact, in Umberto's view, Yu Dong kept asking Ferrante for some information, which already made him feel very strange. After all, Yu Dong heard the name Ferrante for the first time, and had never seen her. work.

(End of this chapter)