Caravaggio, a triangle of love and the passion for Art are at the core of Alessandro Giardino’s novel The Caravaggio Syndrome (2024, Rutgers University Press), translated into English by Joyce Myerson and Alessandro Giardino, with a foreword by Ara Merjian from NYU. The book will be presented at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò on April 22 at 6.30 pm, with an introduction by Elena Favilli, Founder and CEO of Rebel Girls.
Giardino will converse with journalist Annalisa Merelli. The event will also be broadcast live on Casa Italiana’s social pages: YouTube, Facebook, and website.
In Giardino’s novel, Leyla is a headstrong Brooklyn-born art historian at a prestigious upstate New York college. Soon after meeting feckless young computer technician Pablo at a party, she becomes pregnant with his child. There’s only one problem: she can’t stand him. And one more problem: her student Michael wants Pablo for himself. Amid this love triangle, the objects of Leyla and Michael’s study take on a life of their own. Trying to learn more about Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Seven Works of Mercy, they pore over the journal and prison writings of maverick 17th-century utopian philosopher Tommaso Campanella, which, as if by enchantment, transport them back four centuries to Naples. And while the past and present miraculously converge, Leyla, Michael, and Tommaso embark on a voyage of self-discovery in search of a new life.
Alessandro Giardino is Chair and Associate Professor of Italian and Francophone Literature at Saint Lawrence University. Born in Naples, he studied at the University of Bologna, UC Berkeley, and McGill University. He has written extensively about Caravaggio’s cultural circles, as well as Italian and French literature.
