Scoop Italian Style

Novelist and journalist Enrico Franceschini has written a novel about journalists. It is published in Italian with the title of Scoop, an obvious nod to Evelyn Waugh. The allusion may be somewhat lost on Italians, however, because, as FranceschiniĀ concedesĀ in an article in Il LibraioĀ (a monthly Italian publicationĀ for booksellers), the Italian translation of Waugh’s book isĀ entitled Lā€™inviato specialeĀ (roughly “The Special Envoy”). Franceschini has written 13 booksĀ and has reported for the Italian paper La Repubblica from several overseas points including New York, Moscow and London. According to the summary on Amazon.it, the new novel tells the story of a young correspondent sent by a misunderstanding to cover a coup and civil war in a Central American country. At first, he is excited by the prospect of advancing his career through insightful reporting but soon becomes disillusioned by, inter alia, the practices of the other correspondents covering the story.

Franceschini was asked by Il Libraio to name his favorite novels and filmsĀ about journalists. The first on his list isĀ Waugh’s Scoop, which he describes as:

The best book ever written on journalism. It has been the model forĀ mine. I also took the English title of the original edition of 1938, which was just “Scoop”. I could not imitate the style, because nobody writes like Waugh.

Other works on his list include Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the VanitiesĀ and Billy Wilder’s film The Front Page.

The quotes are translated by Google with some editing. A bit of help might be usefulĀ for theĀ description of Franceschini’sĀ book and any other suggestions from readers are invited by commenting below.

 

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