“I started writing this book during difficult years for Europe. There were terrorist attacks, and serious discussions about the climate emergency were taking place. Tasmania emerged from this reflection on the climate crisis. Despite the geographical position, it was chosen because it is an island, and as such, it would be easier to protect yourself there - because in the future that awaits us, perhaps it will be a future where we will need to protect ourselves.”

In his book Tasmania, the Italian writer Paolo Giordano takes his readers on a personal and collective quest for a safe haven where humankind can find shelter, to survive climate change, conflicts and wars.

In this moving book, which describes the struggles of different characters, surviving crises in a world changing rapidly, Giordano attempts to make readers aware of the consequences of global warming. He emphasises that it is hard to weather the storm, as one island will not be enough for all of us. Through the despair of his main character, who travels to Japan to meet the survivors of the atomic bombs, Giordano reminds us one moment in history where hoping was almost impossible. 

“I was asking myself a question: how can we be happy, full of hope and energy in a world fraught with so many risks? At some point, this research for my book instinctively led me to the days after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People there could have lost every kind of hope as they were facing a completely new experience for mankind. Perhaps, in a way, we are facing a great danger like the climate crisis, like crises of democracy, which resemble those things for which we do not yet have the words. So, I have returned to one of humanity's darkest moments - to produce a small hope for the present”, he explains in one his discussions during the Festival of European Literature in Tirana, organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Albania and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.

EU Delegation to Albania

The atomic bomb and the urgent need to understand that event were among the reasons why he studied physics. The Italian author finds it deeply intriguing to connect an explosion with an event that happens in silence. This, he suggests metaphorically, represents things that happen in absolute silence, even when we are waiting for a loud noise.

With a PhD in particle physics, as an intellectual committed to human rights and writing, he emphasises that there is no place of refuge, no plan B nor planet B for mankind, even at this right moment. While supporting European policies on energy transition, he explains his character's statement: “I write for things that make me cry”.

“What I'm referring to is not a private weeping. It's not a solitary. It’s a sob of despair, it's the idea of ​​a collective shedding of tears. I have the impression that all these issues we’re discussing – democracy, the climate crisis, wars – we’re not yet ready to talk about them properly,” he says.

As the story in his books unfolds, following the characters in the quest of their own and private Tasmania, his messages come in soft, intelligent and laconic ways, as in fighting his own despair, searching happiness and at the same time, highlighting the fragility of people with a pristine soul.

EU Delegation to Albania

"Since the invasion of Ukraine, I have found myself unable to use the word ‘peace’ with the ease I used to. It has become a word emptied of its deepest and truest meaning," Giordano reflects. Yet, despite the weight of its themes and its journey across continents, the book seeks to leave readers with a sense of hope. It almost recreates a vision of paradise, or its image, on an island somewhere in Australia – a vision of what we are, or should be, looking for.