Sergio Basso, in conversation with journalist Iacopo Gori, presents at GO Mao Zedong. L'uomo che ha inventato la Cina di oggi (Rizzoli), a book that offers a faithful reconstruction of Mao’s rise and fall: from the Chinese Civil War and the Long March to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. It is also a compass — more necessary today than ever — to help us navigate the recent history of the Asian giant.

The book:

The China we so deeply fear did not come out of nowhere: it is the legitimate, rebellious and extraordinarily powerful daughter of Mao Zedong. And yet the famous icon of the Great Helmsman is made up of a contradictory mosaic that historians have often struggled to piece together. Who was Mao, really?

In this biography, filmmaker and sinologist Sergio Basso offers Italian readers — perhaps for the first time in its full complexity — the portrait of a man who was, at different moments, an awkward student, a tireless leader, a voracious lover, an ambitious poet, a demanding revolutionary, a brilliant orator and a ruthless strategist.

Without ever falling into idolatry or empty criticism, and with both the precision of a scholar and the flair of a filmmaker, Basso gives voice to those who knew Mao and his China up close. He takes us through the places, everyday details and epic conflicts that marked his journey.

The result is a gripping chronicle, one that reads like watching a film: full of twists, vivid close-ups and breathtaking panoramas.

The author:

Sergio Basso is a film and theatre director, as well as a screenwriter for video games. Alongside his career in cinema, he has also pursued an academic path: he holds a postdoc in Classics, with a focus on ancient history and Greek-Byzantine philology.

He has lived in China several times since 1996. It was in China that he worked as assistant director and dialogue writer for Gianni Amelio on the set of La stella che non c’è.

He graduated in Directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and completed a three-year diploma in directing and acting with Jurij Alschitz, under the aegis of GITIS, the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow.

He made his debut with Amori elementari, an Italian-Russian co-production about the emotional world of children. He writes regularly for La lettura de Il Corriere della Sera. Since 2005, he has also written screenplays for series and films directed by others.

Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson, accompanied by Marco Luceri, presents Marilyn Monroe. Dea. Diva. Donna. (White Star), an intimate and unexpected portrait of the woman behind the myth.

Afterwards, at 9.00 pm, Gli uomini preferiscono le bionde by Howard Hawks will be screened in original version with Italian subtitles: the second of the four films scheduled for the MARILYN 100 retrospective, organised in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna.

The book:

More than 120 photographs and an empathetic narrative retrace the life and biography of Marilyn Monroe: from the fragile Norma Jeane to the unforgettable Hollywood star, Marilyn was much more than a cinema icon. Intelligent, ironic and deeply talented, she challenged the system and spent her whole life trying to be loved for who she was, not only for how she appeared.

Marilyn Monroe. Dea. Diva. Donna. is a book that breaks through clichés: it invites readers to look beyond the mask of the dazzling diva and discover the profound, restless soul of a unique and modern woman, still capable today of speaking to the hearts of us all.

The author:

Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson is a journalist who writes about travel, art and lifestyle for leading Italian magazines. For White Star, she has authored several illustrated books dedicated to some of the most important female figures of our time, including Coco Chanel. La rivoluzione dello stile, Jackie. La vita e lo stile di Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Frida. Donna, artista, icona.

In 2021, she was included by Forbes Italia among the 100 Wonder Women of the year: successful women united by leadership and winning creativity.

Florence, here we go again: Renaissance 2.0!

Mirko Serri presents the book Imparare ad adattarsi. Apprendimento e feedback continui come motore del successo individuale e collettivo (Giunti Psicologia.io), in conversation with Valentina Naldoni.

The book:

What will the skills of the future be? What factors will influence our success? We may feel that enough is already being done, but that is not the case. Professionals and companies are going through a moment of profound change and are questioning their own paths. Digital evolution and geopolitical uncertainty are undermining our certainties and, paradoxically, forcing us to stop and reflect.

Imparare ad adattarsi explores the transformative dynamics within companies, analysing the best practices that can help improve performance, both for individuals and for work teams, while also benefiting the sustainability of the system as a whole. It also promotes the use of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, not only as amplifiers of productivity and efficiency, but also as mirrors of our own fulfilment.

At the heart of this journey lies a key concept: only constant learning, fuelled by iterative feedback, can generate the awareness needed to adapt to change and make the most of it. The way we face the coming years will be crucial for professionals and companies alike: the book clarifies which actions can create a positive impact, which leadership styles can build trust, and what to invest in at both individual and team level in order to achieve the best results.

The author:

Mirko Serri is a writer, poet and musician, as well as a father and active professional. Originally from Modena, where he trained and developed several artistic projects, including photography exhibitions and concerts, he began his professional career at UniCredit in 2002.

In 2010 he moved to Milan and, as an HR Business Partner, launched and managed strategic international projects for the Holding. In recent years, he has coordinated global training for the Digital & Information and Operating Office departments.

Author of short stories and organizer of literary prizes, Florentine journalist Paolo Mugnai presents the collection he edited, Viaggio in libreria. Tredici racconti ambientati in Toscana (Felici Editore). Joining him on stage will be Silena Santoni, the author of one of the stories, set right in our own Giunti Odeon.

The book:

Let the journey into the bookshop continue. Step inside, browse, breathe in the scent of printed paper. Let it envelop you, leaving behind the feeling that something in you has changed. You will be welcomed by booksellers: hospitable, warm, knowledgeable hosts, and above all empathetic toward you and anyone who crosses that threshold from reality into imagination.

The authors featured in this collection draw from the true — or perhaps imagined — history of the bookshops they have chosen, tracing fictional yet believable paths, because the booksellers are real and, perhaps, so is everything written in these thirteen stories spanning every genre.

Leonardo Gori’s historical tale set at Seeber in Florence is followed by stories by the book’s editor Paolo Mugnai, set at Farollo e Falpalà in Florence, and by the other authors: Alessandro Agostinelli at Pellegrini in Pisa, Alessandro Scarpellini at Blu Book in Pisa, David Basevi at Gioberti Le Cure in Florence, Dianora Tinti at Mondadori in Grosseto, Ezio Alessio Gensini at Capitolo 7 in Barberino di Mugello, Fabrizio Altieri at Libreria dei Ragazzi in Pisa, Francesco Russo at Rinascita in Sesto Fiorentino, Lino Addis at Cino Ubik in Pistoia, Massimiliano Scudeletti at Libraccio in Florence, Roberta Capanni at NessunDove in Empoli, Serena Rapezzi at Centro Libri in Florence, and Silena Santoni at Giunti Odeon in Florence.

At GO, a lectio by Annie Cohen-Solal. The historian, essayist, exhibition curator and distinguished professor at Università Bocconi di Milano will present her Mark Rothko: come riparare il mondo (Einaudi), in conjunction with the successful exhibition dedicated to the artist currently on view at Palazzo Strozzi until 23 August 2026.

The book:

Born Marcus Rotkovitch in Dvinsk, in the Russian Empire, Mark Rothko emigrated to the United States at the age of ten. He brought with him to the New World his Talmudic education and the memories of pogroms seen through the eyes of a child.

It was the experience of displacement and the stigma of being an immigrant that would later become the driving force behind the aesthetic subversion the artist introduced into the heart of modern society. Celebrated as a pioneer of abstraction as early as the 1950s, Rothko never settled for a purely formal achievement. In fact, he never stopped grasping, earlier and more profoundly than anyone else, the sense of disorientation of a world constantly on the brink.

One need only think of the dark austerity of the Rothko Chapel, perhaps his most majestic and complete work, inaugurated in 1971 in Houston: a place of meditation that seems to emanate the anxieties and the need for hope of a dark era.

What remains in 2026 of Rothko’s relentless search at the borders of art, of his political thought, of his sense of the sacred, if not the artist’s invitation to keep going, to move forward between tragedy and hope, in an attempt to repair the world at all costs?

In these pages, Annie Cohen-Solal reveals every facet of what may be the most significant artistic personality of the twentieth century: a multidimensional intellectual, politically engaged, whose spiritual aura must be understood through the deep roots of his personal history.

The author:

Annie Cohen-Solal was born in Algiers and lives between Paris, Milan and Cortona. A historian, essayist and exhibition curator, she is distinguished professor at Università Bocconi di Milano. After earning her PhD at the Sorbonne, she taught at universities in Berlin, Jerusalem, New York and Paris, and served as cultural counsellor at the French Embassy in the United States.

Among her many books are the internationally published biographies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Leo Castelli and Mark Rothko. In Italy, her works include Sartre (1986), Americani per sempre. I pittori di un mondo nuovo (2006) and Leo & C. Storia di Leo Castelli (2010). Picasso. Una vita da straniero won the Premio Femina per la Saggistica 2021 and is being translated in many countries.