(1985)

The novel was published in the spring of 1985 by Bompiani and marked the recognition of the writer’s new image, now more closely linked to the narrative plot. During his work on the book, Tondelli wrote, “The plot must be strong, a story works if the plot is well-constructed. I need to create story-lines, to relate, to disrupt the relationships between the characters … “. For this reason, the map of the Adriatic Riviera had taken on great importance during the writing period. The writer had drawn this map himself, and had slowly covered it with notes, cutouts and reflections ; reaching the point where he was able to manipulate the destiny of the characters in both a temporal and geographical sense.

Upon its release, the book was noted above all for overlapping the image of Rimini with that of “a home-grown Nashville”. The writer returned to this subject several times, as can be seen in “Rimini come Hollywood” [Rimini as Hollywood], the second part of “Un weekend postmoderno” [A Post-modern Weekend]. The book was labelled as a commercial novel by the critics. This did not please the writer ; who saw in “Rimini” an attempt to describe the Adriatic Riviera ” … as a ‘container’ of different stories … a fresco, perhaps a symphony, of the Italian scene in those years, and the various ways – emotional, dramatic and existential – of describing it”.

The French edition, in which the writer had revised the text, was put out by Seuil in 1990. Pier Vittorio Tondelli considered it to be the best version of the novel and then changed the Italian edition accordingly. Other translations were released in German, Spanish and Catalan.