At Giunti Odeon, Stefano Massini will present his book Donald (Einaudi), joined on stage by Ezio Mauro.

The Book:

It seems that the entire existence of a human being is played out in just ten minutes—the sum of those fateful moments when something decisive happens in our lives. This book tells the story of the ten defining minutes in the life of a man who, from the moment he became self-aware, desired one thing only: power.
A biography, then? More like a ballad—whirling and compelling, picaresque, dreamlike, biting, and yet haunting. Told in the unmistakable voice of Stefano Massini—who brought Lehman Trilogy to international acclaim, making him the first Italian author to triumph on Broadway—this is the relentless odyssey of a child who grows into a golden boy, then a ruthless entrepreneur, until the exact moment he chooses to don the mask we now all recognize as Donald J. Trump.

Can the most powerful man on Earth be portrayed the way storytellers of old would, blending history and legend, fact and myth, horror and parody? In telling the life of his colossal, over-the-top, predestined protagonist, Massini starts at the beginning: a German-American family, a well-manicured lawn, a house nestled in the idyllic peace of Queens. To deflate the legend with humor and sabotage the myth with sarcasm, Massini’s spellbinding prose zooms into microscopic details, weaving them into the path of a life teeming with characters: the parents, the school principal, the chauffeur, the Golden Wife. And then the lawyer—the one who senses Donald’s potential, who teaches him cynicism and pragmatism, who propels him toward success, toward conquering New York, and to the tallest tower bearing his name.

Meanwhile, history marches on: Malcolm X’s fiery speeches, Lee Oswald leaving home with a rifle, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali floating like a butterfly... But while all this unfolds, our gaze is fixed solely on the adventures of that red-skinned, blond-haired boy who rapidly becomes a man, dubs himself the "Golden Boy," seduces women, and defies authority. We brush the grass of the baseball fields he plays on, watch him wear his first fine suit, ride in a Cadillac, and follow him up the triumphant ladder of real estate… until we see the birth of his ultimate idea: politics as an exit strategy. From financial ruin, from irrelevance, from old age—perhaps even from death.

Stefano Massini has written a chanson de geste about a shadowy, elusive character who turns lying into an art form and success into an obsession. Here is the story of the ten crucial minutes and fateful choices that made Donald J. Trump the anti-hero of the last century and the looming specter of the one just begun.

The Author:

Stefano Massini is the most widely staged living Italian writer in the world, translated into 24 languages and celebrated from Broadway to London’s West End, with stage adaptations directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes.
In 2015, following the success of his trilogy directed by Luca Ronconi, he was appointed artistic consultant for the Piccolo Teatro of Milan. His novel Something About the Lehman Brothers (Qualcosa sui Lehman, Mondadori, 2016), translated internationally, was one of the most acclaimed books of recent years (Campiello Selection Award, SuperMondello Prize, De Sica Prize, and later the Prix Médicis and Prix Meilleur Livre Étranger in France). His second novel is The Interpreter of Dreams (L’interprete dei sogni, Mondadori, 2017).

A regular contributor to the newspaper la Repubblica, he is also a well-known television personality for his Thursday storytelling segment on the program Piazzapulita on La7.
Among his other works published by Einaudi: Lehman Trilogy (2014), Manhattan Project (2023), and Mein Kampf. From Adolf Hitler (2024).