Walkabout

The Garzanti dictionary defines Walkabout simply as “a period spent wandering around the country (espec. by Australian aborigines)”. The more general term “wandering” does not have the same flavour to it; just try googling “religions or anthropology”, or “The Songlines” by Bruce Chatwin. What Giorgio Gennari sets out to do here is to convince the reader that you can take a trip around the world simply by walking around slowly and casually, sometimes without even rising from your seat. Just for the record: in this book, some readers have perceived echoes of Beckett, Zavattini, Dostojevskj, Arbasino, Turghenjev, Celati and Rabelais. Who knows? The illustrations inspired by the writings, printed on translucent paper, are by Giacomo Mordacci.

The author

Giorgio Gennari was a fortunate survivor of the Second World War, his initial education was provided by the countryside and the throbbing proletarian heart of the city. He began his career amid accounting ledgers, moving on from there to study Foreign Languages and Literatures at the Bocconi University in Milan, supporting himself with a series of jobs from the humblest to the most prestigious before dropping out of university in an attempt to enter the annals of the theatre. He has written in dozens of notebooks, on paper serviettes and hundreds of sheets of paper scattered here and there, as well as a few sarcastic musings in local newspapers, brochures and press releases. He now lives in Berlin, from where he often takes trips down to the exotic country he loves best: Italy.

Technical details

Size 34.5 x 23.8 cm – pages 158 with illustrations

Cover: hardcover coated in brown parcel paper crumpled by hand. Spine covered in black fabric.

Title highlighted by a screen-printing element. Large black elastic band, reminiscent of a travel notebook.

Inside: “Flora avorio cordenons” paper, six-colour printing. Paper crumpled by hand at the beginning of each chapter. Ten illustrations in six-colour printing, subject and background printed separately (the former is printed on semi-transparent paper “gsk Fedrigoni”).