Francesco Guccini – died on the morning of Thursday, August 6 in his home in Pavana, in the Apennines in the province of Pistoia – he worked until the last days on a new book that will now be published posthumously in early September, as anticipated by Adnkrons: it will be titled “Calde le pere. Story of a river and an incorruptible girl” and will be published once again, like most of his novels, by Giunti publisher.
The work
The singer-songwriter and writer, in a statement marked by a poignant and poetic closing, collected by Paolo Iacuzzi, the editor who accompanied him in his last literary adventure, presented the work on July 23 as follows: «Calde le pere was born from a draft that a friend of mine told me about, who also created a cabaret show from it. The two stories he told me, that of the girl on a bicycle and that of the chaste girl who becomes pregnant while bathing in the Reno, fascinated me greatly. Casalecchio sul Reno was then the Lido of Bologna, with over ten thousand visitors a day in summer, so much so that from the 1930s to the 1950s postcards were printed showing the weir on the Reno that had created a large bathing basin».
The narrative incipit
The book starts as “Vola Golondrina” did, the last thriller Guccini wrote with Loriano Macchiavelli: «There was the passage of a mysterious motorcyclist distributing flyers; here instead there is a girl on a bicycle, evidently a prostitute – a mirror figure to that of the madam who at the end of this book takes on the role of a gynecologist ante litteram. I have always loved the narrative springing from a triggering event, or from the irruption of a deus ex machina, almost a theatrical coup. As in several of my other novels, I then divided the book into scenes, giving them a title and an ironic caption as some of my most beloved authors would have done, from Sterne to Jerome», Guccini explained.
The tribute to Pavana
«In the story – continues Guccini’s presentation – there is also a tribute to Pavana, when I abandon myself to the poetic imagination of the breeze that blows from the source of the Reno in the Pistoia Apennines through woods and meadows: there I wanted to name herbs, flowers, and fruits with the same Pavana terms found in the Epaphanic Chronicles and in Tralummescuro, because words are important and their sound is the one with which we learned to love things. It is important for me to preserve the words of the dialect, to save all those names – Guccini declared in his last statement dictated for the posthumous book. – The Reno, then, is the river of my life, which I made the protagonist of many of my songs, but which in reality, like Claudio Magris’s Danube, is born from the dripping of a tap on the Apennines. In these pages I also wanted to recall its epic events, to ask myself if there ever was a ”navy” of the Reno… If I think about it, it is the other axis that crosses that of the Via Emilia: perhaps, lying in that river, with my head among the meadows of Pavana, my feet towards Modena and Bologna, my arms embracing the woods, I am there too».
The portrait of the publisher
Until the very end intent on his work with passion, sarcasm, and a disenchanted but not cynical view of the world, Francesco Guccini – in the words of the Giunti publisher – «was a true writer, able to tell wonderful figures of today as well as yesterday, capable of ranging across genres, an intellectual who knew how to observe and sing the transformation of the country from the post-war years to today. Reading him, listening to him has always been like entering the most hidden rooms of memory, finding a sense of community and belonging to then face the present. His voice, capable of uniting autobiographical hints, news, great and small history, in songs and in his books, accompanied generations».
The literary path
Guccini cared immensely about his literary path. In his last decade of production, he had arrived at Giunti Editore together with Antonio Franchini who, one evening many years before, had the idea to propose writing thrillers together with Loriano Macchiavelli.
The memory of Franchini and Ichino
Antonio Franchini himself, in a joint statement with Giulia Ichino, recalls the author to whom he was close: «Francesco Guccini was above all an extraordinary friend. Calling his home number in Pavana (after 11 in the morning, never before!) and hearing Prrronto with his unmistakable “r” was a certainty, being welcomed by him and Raffaella at home or at the Caciosteria di Mimmo e Betty was a joy: and around the laid table projects and ideas were born, always accompanied by jokes, wordplays, parodies that were the highest expression of Guccini’s humor and genius. Because the table is the place of words, and if Francesco Guccini had an unshakable faith it was in words: in their multifaceted richness, which he explored with the fun of a puzzlist; in their historical depth, which he cultivated as a passionate lexicographer; in their poetic power, which he shaped in his singer-songwriter verses; in their ability to save stories, to build universes, to resist barbarism, becoming the militant tools of his literature. Francesco was a great man – continues the memory of Franchini and Ichino – also for the way he lived success, letting it slide off him, continuing to think for himself even when they labeled him with tags that did not correspond to his democratic, free, and liberal thought. Like every great writer, Guccini wrote only one story, always the same, always more beautiful and powerful, which flows from his songs into his novels and in the last, moving story soon to be released finds its most poignant verse: but, with a worthy foil thrust à la Cyrano, the poignancy is tempered by a title that only he could choose. The mysterious and sensual motto ”Calde le pere!” The void left by Francesco Guccini is unfillable. But let’s tell one of his jokes, listen to his songs, reread his books and we will be less alone».
Recent works
In 2017 the golden couple formed by the singer-songwriter and Loriano Macchiavelli, among the fathers of the Italian thriller, had published for Giunti Tempo da Elfi. Then, for Guccini, came, again with Giunti, the solo work to which he felt very attached, Tralummescuro, Campiello Selection Prize in 2019: a literary ballad dedicated to the recollection (also linguistic, through the extensive use of dialect) of the Apennine village where Guccini had spent his childhood in his grandparents’ mill and then returned to live as an adult, never leaving again. In 2018, for Bompiani, the singer-songwriter had collected a selection of his Songs, which the introduction and notes by philologist Gabriella Fenocchio commented on in their density of poetic texts. Che cosa sa Minosse? and then again Vola Golondrina (2022, 2023, Giunti) were the last four-hand thrillers with Macchiavelli. From 2024 the successful collection of stories Come eravamo (Giunti publisher) was followed by the novella Romeo e Giulietta 1949 in 2025.
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