I just got back from two weeks in Italy and one of the highlights of the
trip was some time that I got to spend at the home office of edizioni e/o, the parent company of Europa Editions, in downtown Rome!
I made arrangements in advance to visit and was greeted by Simona Olivito, e/o's production manager. She was so sweet and showed my husband and me around the offices where we learned a lot about what goes on behind the scenes. She was also very patient with my choppy Italian until we switched to English-which did not take long!
Here she's pointing out the Wall of Europas, as I call it. The top two shelves are filled with the "pocket size" books only published in Italian. I did not know these existed! On the other side on the top shelves are boxes filled with out of print books.
Here are some shelves filled with original editions of books that e/o has translated either into English or other languages.
Did you know e/o did translations into Italian of Tom Perrotta? I did not!
Here is one of the office mascots, one of the hedgehogs fans have sent in honor of
The Elegance of the Hedgehog. The walls of the offices are also decorated with photos of e/o authors such as Massimo Carlotto, Muriel Barbery and others. Fun!
Then, Jeff and I got to meet Sandro and Sandra Ferri, owners and publishers of e/o and Europa! They offered us cappuccino and we chatted with them for a nice long time about Europa, publishing, bookselling and more. They were so welcoming and kind to us- as was everyone in the office. It was such a pleasure to meet them and get to see "where the magic happens" at one of my favorite publishing houses. They gifted us with two Europa tote bags and a copy of
The Fugitive, the last remaining Carlotto I have to read, along with their upcoming catalogs for the Winter season and the catalog highlighting their World Noir series. I learned that Carlotto has a new one coming out from Europa, a sequel to
The Goodbye Kiss. I can't wait! We had such a wonderful time and really appreciated their generosity and kindness. I'm going to send them some little gifts and a note soon. Mille grazie!!!
