Have you ever been to the House of the Monster?

Our head office is inside the beautiful Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua, in via Stampatori 4, in the “publishing district”.
Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua stands inside an urban block, formerly called “carignone”, of which there are documentary records dating back to the mid-15th century.
The current appearance of the palace is due to Giacomo Solaro who, between 1590 and 1600, purchased and united various portions of the building belonging to other owners.
The frescoes by Antonino Parentani, created starting in 1603, decorate the façade and the internal courtyard of the Palace and represent the last remaining example in Turin of this decorative typology of Mannerist taste.
The current name of the building is instead linked to the subsequent owners, the Counts Scaglia di Verrua, whose large coat of arms is still visible on the entrance door.
The block among Via Stampatori, Via Barbaroux, Via San Dalmazzo and Via Garibaldi was affected by the bombings that took place in the summer of 1943. All the buildings were damaged, but in particular the building in Via Stampatori 4 saw the partial destruction of a floor on the street side, towards Via Garibaldi, and the damage of two floors. Incendiary bombs, launched in two episodes, in November 1942 and August 1943, caused the total detachment of the roof with the collapse of ceilings and dividing walls and the total shattering of the window frames. In June 1944 the roof had already been partially restored.

Winter appointment: New Year’s Eve toast

    Friday, December 16 from 6 to 9 pm – via Stampatori 4, Turin

On the occasion of the upcoming winter holidays, hopefulmonster and the other realities of Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua (the only Renaissance palace in Turin) open their spaces to the public from 11 am to 9 pm, inviting you to a New Year’s Eve toast accompanied by interesting meetings and a live musical performance.

They invite you to a toast together:
Aureafollia (special opening until 8:30 pm)
B&B Viastampatori (welcome tea and herbal teas)
Bottega Studio Archittetti (studio opening until 5:00 pm)
Focacceria Sant’Agostino (focaccia and wine)
Galleria Persano (Per Barclay and Driant Zeneli on display)
GM Savio (studio opening)
hopefulmonster editore (opening of spaces and meetings)
Nextatlas (studio opening)
Viastampatori Parfum (special opening until 9:00 pm)

For hopefulmonster there will be, starting at 6:00 pm:
Sergio Ariotti (journalist, series director),
Gherardo Bortolotti (author),
Paola Caridi (journalist, series director),
Filippo Landi (journalist, author),
Fabrizio Vespa (journalist, author),
Dario Voltolini (writer, series director).

The musical performance by Ramon Moro will follow at 8 pm.

Amnesty International and hopefulmonster, Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s Italian publisher, applaud the City Council’s intervention on the case of the Egyptian activist in prison and on hunger strike for 82 days.

On Monday 20 June, the City Council of Turin called for the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an engineer and blogger imprisoned in Egypt – and on hunger strike – for alleged violations of national security through the dissemination of false news. Alaa was one of the main exponents of the 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, the Tahrir Square Revolution. The motion, whose first signatory is Councilor Silvio Viale, also calls for the release of Mohamed el-Baqer (Alaa’s lawyer, who is also imprisoned) and blogger Mohamed Oxygen Ibrahim, arbitrarily included at the end of 2020 in a “terrorist list”.

The document approved in the chamber with 22 councilors in favor calls for the display at Palazzo Civico of a banner of solidarity with Alaa and the political prisoners in Egypt. Egyptian President Al-Sisi is also asked to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Mohamed el-Baqer and Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim, detained for peacefully exercising their rights, and to expel Alaa to Great Britain, of which he is a citizen.
Finally, the Turin City Council calls on the Italian Government, already involved in the affairs of Giulio Regeni and Patrick Zaki, today at the sixth hearing of his trial, to act towards Cairo to obtain the release of the three prisoners of conscience.

“We welcome the position taken by the Turin City Council, among the few institutions to raise its voice against the inhuman dictatorship of Al-Sisi. We will continue to move forward, for Alaa, Mohamed, Oxygen, Patrick and all the people deprived of their rights by this regime” comments Emanuele Russo, president of Amnesty International Italy.

Also satisfied is Beatrice Merz, president of hopefulmonster, the Italian publisher that published as a world premiere the writings of blogger and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Non siete stati ancora sconfitti: “I believe that Turin, two days after a highly successful and well-attended pride, confirms its reputation as the Italian capital of rights. I would particularly like to thank the president of the City Council Maria Grazia Grippo and councilor Silvio Viale for their courage and great support”.

“Alaa’s rights are our rights. There is no distance between an Egyptian prisoner of conscience and Italian citizens. We are part of a Union, Europe, that will remain solid only if it continues to defend democracy, freedom and rights. Alaa’s future, the future of the tens of thousands of prisoners in Egyptian jails is our future” concludes the writer and journalist Paola Caridi, promoter, together with Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy, of the international relay of solidarity fasting in favor of Alaa.

hopefulmonster, the Italian publisher that has published the world premiere of the writings of the young blogger and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah – Non siete stati ancora sconfitti – Translation by Monica Ruocco –, supports the young Egyptian activist who is unjustly in prison and on hunger strike for 55 days.

“We trust that the Italian government can support the dramatic situation of Alaa Abd el-Fattah. We as a publishing house, which, together with the English publisher Fitzcarraldo, were the first in the world to publish his book, are working to raise awareness among the media, stakeholders and politicians regarding an increasingly intolerable situation, not only for Alaa but also for the over 60,000 prisoners of conscience in Egyptian prisons” says Beatrice Merz, founder and president of hopefulmonster editore. On Wednesday 25 May, Laila Soueif, mother of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, was heard by members of the Permanent Committee on Human Rights in the World of the Chamber of Deputies “regarding the fact-finding inquiry into Italy’s commitment to the international community for the promotion and protection of human rights and against discrimination” by participating in the session of the Committee, chaired by the Honorable Laura Boldrini.
“It was a necessary hearing for three reasons. The first: because it was from the living voice of Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s mother that the deputies were able to hear his story and his conditions as a prisoner of conscience. The second reason: because it was not only his mother who told the story of Alaa, but one of the most esteemed human rights defenders and internationally recognized academics. The third: because the hearing took place within the Italian parliament, which now – once again – cannot say it does not know what is happening in Egypt. At the request of the Honorable Lia Quartapelle, responsible for foreign policy of the PD, on what can be done to support Alaa’s case, Laila Soueif asked to put pressure on our government, the government of a country that has already experienced, through the killing of Giulio Regeni and the detention of Patrick Zaki, human rights violations by the Egyptian regime” comments Paola Caridi, editor of the book Non siete stati ancora sconfitti.

Amnesty International, which has been following the writer’s case for years and collaborated on the Italian edition of the book, also has a firm stance. “The hunger strike decided by Alaa Abd el-Fattah to oppose a regime, that of Al-Sisi, which holds him, thousands of other Egyptian citizens and the entire country under the most terrible autocracy, has destroyed the last alibi, if anyone still thought there was one, for the Italian government. Our country must change course, radically, in its relations with Egypt. There is no reason that can justify a conduct so contrary to human rights and constitutional principles” says Emanuele Russo, President of Amnesty International Italy. Laura Boldrini, President of the Permanent Committee on Human Rights in the World of the Chamber of Deputies, comments on this unacceptable affair as follows: “The Italian government should work to ensure that a response is given as soon as possible to the requests of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an Egyptian activist and blogger detained in his country and on hunger strike for 54 days. Recently transferred to another facility, until a few days ago he was in the Tora penitentiary in Cairo, where Patrick Zaki was also locked up. Alaa Abd el-Fattah is one of the prisoners of conscience of Al-Sisi’s regime, a symbol of a generation of young Egyptians who put their lives at the service of human rights. He has been arrested several times for participating in unauthorized demonstrations”.

hopefulmonster, the independent publishing house that owes its name to the hopeful monsters, or rather to the evolutionary leaps, those little monsters that are like that before moving on to their real nature – founded in 1986 by Beatrice Merz – launches a new series: Pennisole directed by the writer Dario Voltolini.
The word Pennisole, includes the pens, the Italian peninsula and its islands.
The series in fact publishes texts by Italian authors, or foreign authors who write Italian, often already known or very well known to the public. “I want writing (its quality) to be the central pivot of Pennisole and since we are convinced that in Italy we are experiencing a season (not now and not for a short time) of high level in the art of writing, with hopefulmonster we would like to contribute to the diffusion of this varied and effervescent quality happy to open another space to the creativity and imagination that run through our gentle and wonderful language. – comments Dario Voltolini – We leave to our pens what we might call freedom of prose because we are certain that the series will host texts that are very different from one another and perhaps even different from what that author usually writes in their usual professional activity. A very well-known and refined author of crime/noir novels has produced a gem that concerns the sport of his life, for example. Which is neither a crime nor a noir sport!”