Alessandro Baricco

Baricco published essays on music criticism: Il genio in fuga (1988) on Gioachino Rossini, and L'anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin ("Hegel's Soul and the Cows of Wisconsin", 1992) on the relation between music and modernity.

Baricco debuted as a novelist with Castelli di rabbia (translated as Lands of Glass) in 1991.

The Scuola Holden hosts a variety of courses on narrative techniques including screenwriting, journalism, novels and short stories.

In the following years, his fame grew throughout Europe, with his works topping the Italian and French best-seller lists.

Larger recognition followed the adaptation of his theatrical monologue Novecento into the movie The Legend of 1900, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.