‘Meet the Writer: Giuliano da Empoli’

May 9 is both Europe Day and the day the Russians celebrate their victory over Hitler. On this symbolic day, Bozar will launch the annual Mayday Magazine with Giuliano da Empoli as its guest. His debut novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, was published in 2022, a few weeks after Putin invaded Ukraine. The novel features a (partly fictional) advisor to Putin and offers a disconcerting insight into the back rooms of power. The book became a literary sensation: hundreds of thousands of French people have now read it and it is also gaining momentum in other countries. An advisor to former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, da Empoli knows politics like no other. He argues for a cultural recovery of the European Union in Seven Ideas for a European Cultural Recovery Plan. Béatrice Delvaux discusses Europe and its crises with him. ​​​​​​​