Discovery of the World

Luciana Castellina is one of Italy’s most prominent left intellectuals and a cofounder of the newspaper il manifesto. In this coming-of agememoir, based on her diaries, she recounts her political awakening as a teenage girl in Fascist Italy—where she used to play tennis with Mussolini’s daughter—and the subsequent downfall of the regime. Discovery of the World is about war, anti-Semitism, anti-fascism, resistance, the belief in social justice, the craving for experience, travel, political rallies, cinema, French intellectuals and FIAT workers, international diplomacy and friendship. All this is built on an intricate web made of reason and affection, of rational questioning and ironic self-narration as well as of profound nostalgia, disappointment and discovery.‘An anti-heroic account, a depiction of a sentimental education nourished by passion, curiosity and the levity of life, with an eager sincerity always bursting forth’
— La Repubblica

‘A most beautiful book built around the themes of a diary from the years 1943–47’ — La Stampa

‘Luciana Castellina tells her story with humour and without a hint of narcissism, while having fun at the expense of Togliatti, Guttuso and Pajetta’ — Corriere della SeraLuciana Castellina Luciana Castellina is a journalist and writer based in Rome. A member of the Italian Communist Party from 1947, she was expelled in 1969 as part of the dissident il manifesto
group. She has been elected both to the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the European Parliament, where she was President of the Culture and Media Commission. She has published numerous books in Italian, including the highly acclaimed Siberiana.