The explosive emotional spectrum of living in The Living Room of the World, skillfully blended by the brush of a young writer from Capri.
On April 14th, the Collective Novel “Ti racconto dell’isola” (Let me tell you about the island) was presented in Anacapri, at the Mediateca M. Cacace. The novel is written by Capri’s own Costanza Cerrotta, who is already well known for her extraordinary writing skills dedicated to children’s literature, with several stories to her name (one of the most popular being the character Dorina, born right here on the island from the author’s imagination).
This time, Costanza left a unique and powerful mark on the cultural and popular backdrop of our Living Room of the World. The novel, in fact, originated from an idea she launched about a year ago on social media—a fascinating and unique proposal: to participate for free in writing a Collective Novel. For everyone who joined in, the author sent out an opening passage (incipit) and specific instructions to guide the participants as they wrote their stories. Once the texts—both in prose and poetry—were received, Costanza worked on them, linking them together into a common plot that was skillfully woven.
The result? A novel strictly set in the most beautiful places on the island of Capri, where the poetic and deep soul of the protagonist, Gabriele, holds together all the stories and tales of the various chapters through the thread of his memories. Accompanying the work, a series of black-and-white photographs of the Capri locations mentioned in the narrative.
What strikes us at the Living Room of the World about this work is its originality and expressive richness—not only in the different forms created by the many co-authors but also in how, within a single work, an entire world of emotions is encapsulated. These emotions, varied as they are, are all tied together by a single thread skillfully woven by Costanza, who draws from the island of Capri itself and everything that, at a deep level, shapes and forms the unique identity of those who live on an island. This emotional identity is not merely “island-based”; it also carries a further originality: Capri.
For those who live here, this reading is a chance to recognize themselves, to reflect on their own feelings and love for their land. For those who visit the island, there is an ocean of signs, suggestions, and even tangible elements that they can learn to experience through these stories. These tales are skillfully intertwined, revealing in their explosive simplicity and concreteness the experience of living in Capri, with its deep magic—something that cannot easily be expressed as a whole, as this novel successfully does.
Thanks to “Ti racconto dell’isola”, the Living Room of the World has been enriched by a unique work made of love and experience shared by many “direct participants”—Capri residents who, for the first time, find a strong common point of emotionality expressed in many shades of color, all well mixed and captured on canvas by the talented author Costanza Cerrotta.
The e-book is available for free download in PDF format on the website www.youprint.it.
