ICI London and AISUK present L’atomo inquieto by Mimmo Gangemi, in conversation with Federico Varese.
The disappearance of Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1938 is a mystery still unsolved today: on the day of his disappearance he withdrew all his money from his bank account, booked a trip to travel by boat from Palermo to Naples, wrote an enigmatic note to the then Director of the Naples Physics Institute Antonio Carrelli and then just vanished. His body was never found.
Over the years, many hypothesis have been formulated to explain the disappearance: suicide, emigration to either Argentina or Venezuela, kidnapping, murder, retirement into a monastery, and both Leonardo Sciascia and Giorgio Agamben have written about the case.
Mimmo Gangemi in his book, published by Solferino, brings back to life this most inscrutable figure, re-examining the few clues available and the many theories and speculations, in a smooth and gripping narrative, giving us a portrait of Majorana that is faithful to historical facts and totally contemporary at the same time, with the extreme tension between science and ethic that defined his life, and the dilemma between duty and freedom that marks the present age too.
Please be aware that this event will be in ITALIAN.
Free admission, book HERE
Mimmo Gangemi is a writer, engineer and journalist, author of several novels including La signora di Ellis Island (Einaudi 2011, Piemme 2019) and Il Giudice meschino (Einaudi 2009), subsequently adapted for a tv series with Luca Zingaretti. Many of his books have been translated into French. His latest book is Il popolo di mezzo (Piemme 2021)
Federico Varese is a Professor of Criminology and former head of Department at the Department of Sociology of the University of Oxford. Since April 2023, he has been a Professor at Sciences Po in Paris. His main area of research is the study of organised crime and has written extensively on the subject.