The Sleepers
An exceptionally tender book in which Michele Serra’s irony and the power of his satire alternate with heart-wrenching moments, nostalgic lyricism and the unadulterated beauty of the writing.
When others are awake, they sleep, and when others are working, they live and breathe through their mobile phones or tablets. They are the slackers, today’s teenagers, this ‘tribe’ that views the world from a horizontal perspective. Michele Serra delves into the mysterious, unknown world of young people, prompted by the seemingly inert lifestyle of his eighteen-year-old son, and with his penetrating, dynamic prose he uniquely sketches the portrait of an entire generation.
A comic novel, a story of rage, love and melancholy, a tender, deeply lyrical and nostalgic book, but also a sincere tribute to a generation which, even from this horizontal position, manages to see life through its own eyes, just as the others, the ‘upright’, have long since ceased to see, or perhaps have never seen at all.
- Pages: 120
- ISBN: 978-960-572-093-3
- Publication: 2015
- Categories: Literature, eBooks, Foreign Literature
The text is well-balanced, superbly translated, and you get the sense that not a single word is missing or superfluous. In short, although his choice for this series might have seemed bold at first, it was a successful one.
– Katerina Malakate, ReadingThe difficulties of this parent-child relationship, presented with great humour and self-deprecation, form a chronicle interspersed with wise observations on this new world of today’s technologically addicted, dependent young people, in a vivid contrast to the poetic world of their parents’ generation’s imagination.
– Nikos Xenios, bookpress.gr"...A candid account of the consolidation of a relationship and a description of the path of life which, however much it may repeat itself, ultimately moves forward. That is what this text is. I believe that, in its own way, it convinces us that it is a novel unlike any other, a narrative of the human anguish of the ‘I’ until it accepts the tenderness of the ‘We’..."
– Manos Konteleon, diastixo.gr"...Michele Serra is electrifying, inventive; he manages to place humanity at the centre, even as technology relegates it to a centrifugal, unknown force. Speaking to the generation that follows his own, he leaves everyone speechless..."
– Stavroula Skalidi, Kathimerini"...A hard-hitting book, despite the deceptively lightness of his writing, but also a profound and genuine account of the life of a middle-aged man desperately trying to connect with and understand his child..."
– Panagiotis Goutas, Bookpress.gr‘It’s lovely to read books like this, because you feel there is a life you strive for every day; it is the life of the younger generation, which, fortunately, will always prevail.’
– Vasilis Gretistas, Dreamers & Co."...Michele Serra, one of the most famous and satirical commentators on the hustle and bustle of everyday life, has written a book in which he contrasts the ‘war’ and ‘peace’ between the younger and older generations, with an indirect reference to the world of Tolstoy."
– Yannis Antoniadis, culturenow.gr"...With a tone that is ironic, sarcastic, often reproachful, yet constantly imbued with the tender intimacy of a father towards his son, Sera denounces the apathy, indifference and frivolity of the younger generation, shedding light in an eloquent and entertaining manner on one of the most significant intra-family and social issues, the much-discussed generation gap..."
– Katrin Karipidou, The Editors’ Newspaper"...Serra attempts to explain the distinctiveness of young people and to emphasise that the world has changed and that the young people of our time do not look up to the world of adults. They have their own world, their own ideas, their own pace, and they don’t care whether older people understand them. But hasn’t it always been that way?
– Statusupdate.gr"...The Arachti by Italian journalist and writer Michele Serra is a novel of just 110 pages that deals with one of humanity’s oldest concerns: the generation gap and the relationship between parents and children. Serra examines this relationship with care, a relationship he does not fully understand but seems determined to explore. Thought-provoking, topical and presented in an original way, the book has been given a superb translation by Dimitra Dotsi."
– Vaso Beri, Passe par tout readingMichele Serra
Michele Serra, a well-known Italian journalist, writer and satirical commentator on current affairs, was born in 1954 in Rome and grew up in Milan. He began writing at the age of 20 when he first worked as a journalist for the newspaper L’Unità. Since then, he has earned his living exclusively from writing. Today he writes for the newspaper la Repubblica and the magazine L’Espresso, whilst also penning scripts for theatre and television. Since 1986, he has been satirising current affairs with his scathing commentary. In the same year, he won the Forte dei Marmi Political Satire Award. In 1989, he founded the satirical weekly newspaper Cuore, which he edited until 1994. Among other works, he has published two collections of poetry, the novel The Cow Boy (1997) and the short story collections The New Thing That Moves Forward (1989) and Rituals (2002, Prochida-Elsa Morante Prize). The Arachtoi was one of the biggest Italian bestsellers of 2014.
