Paolo Cognetti

It’s not the destination that counts, but the journey, especially, in the case of Paolo Cognetti, if it involves his beloved mountains, be they near (the Aosta Valley in The Eight Mountains), far (the Himalayas in Without Ever Reaching the Summit) or even in distant Alaska, in the documentary “Dreams of the Great North.” Milanese Cognetti began writing short stories before his success with publishing sensation The Eight Mountains (Atria, 2018), winner of the Strega Prize to great international acclaim. Following this book, whose film adaptation won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival, he wrote Without Ever Reaching the Summit (2018), La felicità del lupo (2021) and Giù nella valle (2023), also for Einaudi, accompanied by a lively career as an essay writer, columnist and curator of cultural events. Latest work translated to German: Unten im Tal (Penguin, 2024).