November 13, 2025
6:30 p.m.
Book presentation: Mensaleri (Einaudi, 2025)
With the author Wu Ming 2, in conversation with Parsec
Via dell’Indipendenza 72/z, Bologna
In collaboration with Modo Infoshop, at ExDynamo | La Velostazione (in the air-raid shelter beneath the Montagnola park)
It’s 1868 when Nazzaro Mensa buys the island of Parpai, on the Leri River, and builds a large paper mill there. On the opposite bank, he founds a workers’ village — a settlement that bears his family’s name, joined to that of the river: Mensaleri. It might seem like the dream of an enlightened entrepreneur, but around Nazzaro there are not only engineers and technicians — there is also a magician, who advises him in his decisions.
By 1995, the Mensa era has come to an end: the factory has changed hands several times, and the banks have let it die, despite strikes and occupations. That’s when Riniero, Nazzaro’s great-grandson, appears with an irresistible plan to regenerate the industrial site — to give Mensaleri a new life. Or perhaps not.
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Wu Ming 2 has been a member of Wu Ming since the collective’s beginnings. Together, they have written eight co-authored novels, all published by Einaudi. Also with Einaudi, he is the author of Guerra agli umani (2004), Timira (with Antar Mohamed, 2012), and Mensaleri (2025).
As a solo author, he has created walking reportages, declaimed songs, circus performances, and screenplays for archival films. He has curated and led dozens of “convivial writing” workshops, producing works such as Meccanoscritto (Alegre, 2017) and the “non-tourism” guides to Bologna, Ancona, Arcevia, and Val di Fiastra.