Books in the Crossings series

The odyssey recounted within these pages traverses time and space in order to bear witness to an individual's developing artistry and commitment to political activism. In doing so, Kento chronicles the ongoing dynamics involving the potential of rap music's Italianate permutations and the legacy of a progressive, left cultural politics-what Antonio Gramsci called the national-political-to renounce such societal ills as neo-fascism, xenophobic racism, and misogynistic violence plaguing twenty-first century Italy. Kento's sonic resistance offers a model in which an informed individual's action and artistry contribute to a larger movement.-Joseph Sciorra, from the introduction

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Italian by Laura E. Ruberto. "An immigrant woman's moving account of what one gains, but also what one loses, when emigrating to the U.S. from a village in rural Campania. All those who have been uprooted from their homes can identify with this Southern Italian woman's life story--marked by acceptance of hardship and the poetic memory of the village in which she was born and to which she could not bear to return"--Paola Alessandra Sensi-Isolani, Professor of Anthropology, St. Mary's College of California.

Fiction. Short Stories. Translated from the Italian by Barbara De Marco. In SARACEN TALES, Italian-born Giuseppe Bonaviri brings a wild newness to the tale of the life of Jesus. In this succession of stories, Bonaviri explores all manners of the known and unknown, the archetypal, the mythological, the symbolic--the life of Jesus is both his material and his point of departure. Part surrealism, part folklore, readers will be amazed at the originality and creativity with which a long-familiar tale is presented. "Bonaviri is a myth-maker, looking simultaneously to the historical past and to the future, to arrive at the a-historical, at cosmic universality"--Franco Zangrilli. Giuseppe Bonaviri was born in 1924 in Sicily. He began writing when he was ten and continued through high school, college, and in his professional life as a doctor, health official, and cardiologist. His work has been widely translated.

A self-deprecating, sobering book about a world that continues to move forward without anyone really advancing. -Gian Paolo Serino As Europe, along with the rest of the world, struggles to learn itself anew and adapt in the presence of rapid demographic change - and often acting in a way that fails to recognize the positive potential in this change - Kossi Komla-Ebri provides a human and personal account of this global process which sometimes seems too big, global, and too daunting. Komla-Ebri's vignettes show us through pain and humor what this giant global force looks like when it comes out in the everyday, rears its heads in the interactions between friends or strangers, the intimate or the unfamiliar. By shedding light on the relationship between the structural and the interpersonal, he takes deeply personal issues and makes them universal. Komla-Ebri shows us that we are all touched by what may feel abstract or too broad for the individual to reproduce and affect. All people who have experienced embar-race-ments and othering - which is increasingly all people - should find this book enlightening. And by reflecting our own behavior back to us or teaching us how to cope with and process these daily slights, this work helps us put one foot in front of the other toward a world of greater belonging. -Dr. john a. powell, Hass Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society