Giovanni

Giovanni

Thorvald Steen

Original title: Giovanni
Publisher: Tiden Norsk Forlag, 1993
Genre: Novel
Pages: 150 pages

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In the months of September and October 1833 a young Englishman known as Don Carlos finds himself in Buenos Aires. There he meets a casual labourer, Giovanni Graciani, from Genova, Italy. These two short penetrating novels recount Giovanni’s abandonment of faith, the political upheavals and the bloody events of Argentine history, and his encounter with the man he calls Don Carlos – who in reality is Charles Robert Darwin, on a voyage that will change forever the way man perceives his world. The Italian struggles with the contrary elements of his friend’s behaviour – Darwin is both highly religious and is on the verge of establishing a whole new world of scientificism. Together, these works reveal a philosophical and almost metaphysical battle between scientific logic and blind faith.

Foreign rights

American English: Sun and Moon
Arabic: PWU
Danish: Per Kofod
Finnish: Like
French: Calmann-Lévy
German: Suhrkamp/Insel Verlag
Kurdish: Avesta
Romanian: Pandora
Spanish: Losada
Swedish: Norstedts
Turkish: Can Yayinlari

This is remarkable and intense literature”

Le Monde, France

A rich intellectual adventure”

Kirkus Review, USA

The feverish and painful broodings he lets his hero go through are in themselves an unusually talented exploration of the enormous insecurity and contradictory aspirations which are the essence of human life”

La Corix, l’Évènement, France

Thorvald Steen

Mindre thorvald steen trine hisdal 4
Photo: Trine Hisdal

Thorvald Steen’s (b. 1954) literary career began in 1983, and he has since produced a diverse body of work spanning a variety of genres. Translated into 30 languages so far, Steen has received praise and prizes for the quality of his authorship in Norway and abroad.

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