Alessandro Baricco is a writer, essayist, music critic, television host, screenwriter, theatrical and film director, as well as being one of Europe’s most well-known authors and  receiver of six European awards, whose works have been translated into 30 languages. This guest appearance at the 65^th Festival was, at the same time, his premiere appearance in Croatia. 

Over the course of last night’s event in the Sponza Palace Atrium, Baricco spoke about  “Next”, his work to which he feels deeply connected, due to it being the piece to break his two-year writing pause, during which he thought he would never write again, in which he discusses the subject of globalization. He later  spoke about his work “Iliad “, about events from which he drew inspiration for writing “Silk”, about “Holden”, his school, of which the author says was founded for all the Holden Caulfields of this world, along with other topics opened by the audience, who was visibly interested in the life and work of this famous writer.  

Alessandro Baricco is this season’s first writer to present himself to the Festival’s audience through the “Writers at the Festival” programme.  The premiere performance of “Several imaginary scenes based on the novel Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco”, created  in collaboration of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Croatian Writers Association, HNK Varaždin, Italian Institute for Culture in Zagreb and the Italian Embassy in Zagreb, held on 29^th July, at which the author himself was present, was the first time Baricco has ever watched an adaptation of his novel “Ocean Sea” , although this novel  has been set up on stages worldwide.