Five Art-Inspired Books for Summer Reading: From Pamuk to Van Gogh

A roundup of five recent Italian publications that blend narrative and visual arts. 'Un sogno fatto a Milano' (Johan and Levi, 2018) collects Orhan Pamuk's essays on museums and collecting, alongside contributions by Salvatore Settis and others, coinciding with the transfer of Pamuk's Museum of Innocence to Milan's Bagatti Valsecchi Museum. Gabriele Dadati's 'L'ultima notte di Antonio Canova' (Baldini+Castoldi, 2018) is a fictionalized biography set in Venice in October 1822, recounting the sculptor's final hours and his relationship with Napoleon. Andrea Saltini's 'Ritual de lo Habitual' (Fermo Editore, 2017) offers 31 stories from 'fatal' towns, illustrated by the author, including a tale about Gerry Schum filming trains in Longastrino. Henri-Pierre Roché's 'Victor (Marcel Duchamp)' (Skira, 2018) is a diary-like novel about a love triangle involving Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, and Roché in New York during World War I. Marianne Jaeglé's 'Giallo Van Gogh' (L'Asino d'oro, 2018) is a fictionalized biography of Vincent van Gogh.