BOOK OF THE MONTH

SULLE STRADE DI BARNEY, A Journey in Mordecai Richler's World, by Christian Rocca takes the reader into the world of Barney Panofsky, the fascinating protagonist of the book "Barney's Version" and into the Montreal of its author, Mordecai Richler.
In 2002, one year after Richler's death and on the wave of the extraordinary success of the book in Italy, Rocca traveled to Canada, to the streets and places so vividly described in Barney's Version. Looking for Barney, he found Mordechai Richler and vice versa.
"I never met Mordechai Richler" - writes Rocca in the opening paragraph - "but I feel like we served in the military together". He read all his writings and everything that was written about him; he met his wife, his children and his friends; he walked in "his" streets, ate in "his" restaurants and drank his beloved Macallan.
His fascination with Barney began when "Barney's Version" was published in Italy and the newspaper Rocca was working for, "Il Foglio", began an enthusiastic campaign promoting the book. "Il Foglio" (and his editor, Giuliano Ferrara) loved it, because it was funny , fascinating, romantic, rough, melancholic and politically incorrect and, above all, it was a great love story. The Italians loved it too and the book became a bestseller, selling over three hundred thousand copies.
"Sulle strade di Barney" comes at the moment when interest in the story is revived by the opening of "Barney's Version", the movie. In Rocca's book you will meet Richler's wife ("Florence Richler IS Miriam Panofsky"- writes Rocca), his children and friends; the more you read, the more you are convinced that Barney Panofsky is Mordechai Richler. And the fascination with the two only grows. It will push you, like it happened to me, to read other Richler books, to know more about this author and his world.
Rocca is a very good journalist, his articles and his blog (camillo.it) are a pleasure to read and "Sulle strade di Barney" is no exception. Hopefully an English translation will be available in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy the Italian version and read again "Barney's Version"!

"Sulle strade di Barney - Un viaggio nel mondo di Mordechai Richler" is published by Bompiani.