The year 2025 marks fifty years since the first publication of Horcynus Orca, the monumental novel by Stefano D’Arrigo, released by Mondadori on 25 February 1975. To commemorate this anniversary, Taobuk is a partner in a broad and multi-faceted cultural initiative, developed in collaboration with the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation, the Universities of Milan and Pavia, and Rizzoli Editore.
Horcynus Orca 50 unfolds as a nationwide programme of events designed to bring renewed visibility to one of the twentieth century’s most significant literary achievements and to the legacy of an author among the most visionary in modern Italian literature.
From February to November, the project features exhibitions, performances, academic conferences, public readings and educational activities, engaging schools, universities, cultural institutions and readers of all generations. At its heart lies a new edition of the novel, published by BUR Rizzoli and enriched with archival documents and original critical essays—forming the editorial core of the celebrations.
Running throughout 2025, the programme culminates in June, during the fifteenth edition of Taobuk, with the opening of a documentary exhibition, the launch of the new edition, and a major stage production at the Ancient Theatre of Taormina, directed by Davide Livermore.
Alongside the academic and publishing initiatives, special emphasis is placed on engaging younger audiences. The “Vistocogliocchi” school competition—drawing inspiration from D’Arrigo’s language and imaginative universe—invites students to create original works based on selected extracts from the novel. Over one thousand copies have been distributed to secondary schools in Sicily, Piedmont and Lombardy. Winning entries will be celebrated at both the Turin International Book Fair and Taobuk.
In the same spirit, the project Tra il dire, il fare e il disfare, l’Orca Horcynus—conceived by Professor Dario Tomasello in collaboration with the University of Messina’s Centro Studi Universiteatrali and Taobuk—takes the form of an intensive workshop and performance, involving university and secondary students in an anthology-based reading of the novel.
A joint initiative by the Universities of Milan and Pavia enables the digitisation of D’Arrigo’s original drafts, preserved by the Mondadori Foundation, alongside the production of research materials for scholars and literary enthusiasts.
