Buongiorno Venezia

i’m not sure that Cat Bauer is just a woman. or a red Cat. or a novelist. i think she IS the living contemporary American dream: leave all behind you, come to italy, enjoy life and be yourself. too bad that we italians are not always so good at being italian, and so proud.

9 years in italy. she landed in venice without speaking or understanding a word of italian o venetian dialect. without knowing anyone. sometimes people do that, and not because they are crazy. Cat is so honest as to admit it: it was a challenge. finding herself crying in the middle of St. Mark’s after some months, was part of the game. very unplesant, but necessary to get stronger. and to fall madly in love with this controversial town.

after 9 years in venice, Cat gave a presentation of her last novel at the Mondadori bookshop (the most fashionable and important bookshop in venice and one of the biggest publishing houses in italy). in english. and there were people listening at her. i’m not sure i would have bet this would have happened, when i first met the red Cat, about 8 years ago. but it happened. Cat’s  character - the sixteen-year-old Harley Columba - will fly to venice and live here in the world of contemporary artists for… some novels. we’re eager to read her stories.

btw: Cat is no more isolated, she’s now one of the “local people in the know”. her story is very encouraging to the ones who email us about their wishes and the ones who are just beginning to follow their American-Italian dream. it’s not so important that you know “someone” in venice: it’s important “whom” you know. And “yourself ” is a very good beginning.

Read more on Harley’s Ninth by Cat Bauer

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 11:41 pm and is filed under well done!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.