(10 February 2017) The Italian Cultural Institute of Tirana, in collaboration with the Albanian Ministry of Culture and the National Library present the Albanian language version of Claudio Magris’s "Danubio" (Danub, Albas 2016, translated by Alma Hafizi) in the presence of the author. "The appointment" is for February 28 at 11:00 at the National Library of Tirana. Landscapes, moods, encounters, reflections, stories of a sternian traveller who retraces the path of the old river from its source all the way to the Black Sea with humour and piety, while also retracing his own life and the seasons of contemporary culture, his beliefs and anxieties. A route between the novel and essay that talks about culture as an existential experience and rebuilds civilizations of Central Europe like a mosaic rediscovering its profile in the marks left by history and the ephemeral traces of everyday life. (Red)

CLAUDIO MAGRIS

 Claudio Magris (b. Trieste, 1939) was an Italian writer, scholar of German and senator (in the XII Legislature). He began teaching German literature at the University of Turin, then at the University of Trieste. He attracted the attention of literary critics at a young age with "The Hapsburg Myth in Modern Austrian Literature" (1963, an elaboration of his thesis). He was among the first to re-evaluate the literary tradition of Jewish culture within Central European literature with "Far from where, Joseph Roth" and Eastern Jewish tradition (1971). "Danubio" (Danube) (1986), perhaps his masterpiece, established him as one of the greatest contemporary Italian writers winning him the Bagutta Award in 1986. He was also awarded the Premio Strega in 1997 for his novel “Microcosmi” (Microcosms) and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2004 and the Chiara Prize in 1999 and the Giuseppe Acerbi Literary Award, a special award for nonfiction. In 2016 he received the Kafka Award in Prague from the committee appointed by the Franz Kafka Society, dedicated to authors translated into Czech that have distinguished themselves for "high literary merit" and the "ability to engage the reader."