Today (21st April 2026) marks the launch of the book “Hotel Chopin” written by Francesco Matteo Cataluccio , published by Sellerio in Palermo, with my illustration on the cover. The book was written in italien.
News from Ukraine and memories of the dramatic events of the 20th century permeate *Hotel Chopin*. The author engages in conversation with the guests – Ukrainian refugees – listening to their stories and drawing on their memories and experiences. Past and present, death and life, dreams and bitter disappointments, fantasy and reality overlap and intertwine, much like the many artists and writers whom Cataluccio, an extraordinary expert on the Slavic world, has encountered in his life or through the pages of books, allowing us to cross the boundaries, eras and events in the historical and cultural mosaic of this part of Europe, which was the scene of a catastrophic war between the worlds and remains so to this day.
It is the guests who tell the stories, but it is the literary figures who make the book unique: Bulgakov, Kundera, Dostoevsky, Andruchowycz, Blok, Brodsky – they are there, real characters who converse, comment and argue.
Francesco M. Cataluccio studied philosophy in Florence and literature and art history in Warsaw. He is responsible for the cultural programmes at Frigoriferi Milanesi. He writes online for Il Post, Engramma and doppiozero. He has edited the Italian editions of the works of Witold Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz. His publications include: *Immaturità. The Illness of Our Time (2004) and What Will Become of Books? (2010). With this publishing house, he has published: I’m Going to See if It’s Better Over There. Quasi un breviario mitteleuropeo (2010, Dessì Prize for Literature), Chernobyl (2011), L’ambaradan delle quisquiglie (2012), La memoria degli Uffizi (2013) and Hotel Chopin (2026).
