Giuliano da Empoli (born 1973) is an Italian and Swiss political essayist and novelist. He is the founding chairman of Volta, a think tank based in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and a professor at Sciences Po Paris. In 2022, he published his

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

'' Le Mage du Kremlin'', for which he received the

Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française Le Grand Prix du Roman is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie française. Along with the Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French litera ...

Life and career

Born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

in 1973, Giuliano da Empoli grew up in several European countries, graduated in law at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

and obtained a master's degree in political science at the

Institut d'études politiques de Paris , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

(Sciences Po). He has been Deputy Mayor for culture in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been ...

. He has also been an executive board member at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

and the chairman of the

Gabinetto Vieusseux The Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G. P. Vieusseux, founded in 1819 by Giovan Pietro Vieusseux, a Protestant merchant from Geneva, is a library in Florence, Italy. It played a vital role in linking the culture of Italy with that of other Eu ...

in Florence. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Senior Advisor to Italy's Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Culture,

Francesco Rutelli Francesco Rutelli (born 14 June 1954) is an Italian journalist and former politician, who is the president of '' Anica'', National Association of Film and Audiovisual Industry, since October 2016. He also chairs the "Centro per un Futuro Sosteni ...

, establishing the first Italian Design Council in

. From 2014, he is member of the Italy-USA Foundation. In 2016, he founded the think tank Volta, a member of the Global Progress network. He has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences around the world (including

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

's ESPM,

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

's Finance Foundation, Paris' Foundation Ricard and

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

's Club

Baur au Lac Baur au Lac is a luxury hotel at Talstrasse, Zürich, Switzerland. The hotel was founded in 1844 by Johannes Baur, and is still owned by the Baur family. It was completely renovated between 2008 and 2010. It is a member of the Leading Hotels o ...

) and is a member of The Travellers Club in Paris.

Writer and political essayist

Since 1996, he has been a regular contributor and columnist for the country's leading printed media, including Il Corriere della Sera,

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...

Il Sole 24 Ore ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' () is an Italian national daily business newspaper owned by Confindustria, the Italian employers' federation. History and profile ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' was first published on 9 November 1965 as a merger between ''Il Sole'' ("the ...

and

Il Riformista ''Il Riformista'' (English: "The Reformist") is an Italian political and financial newspaper based in Rome, Italy. History and profile Launched on 23 October 2002, ''Il Riformista'' was formed of about four pages with Orange as main colour use ...

. He also hosted a weekly talk radio show on Italy's main financial news radio, Radio 24. As an author and social commentator, he has been regularly appearing on all of the main Italian TV channels. At the age of twenty-two he published his first book
"Un grande futuro dietro di noi"
' about the problems faced by the Italian youth, which sprung a national debate and led the newspaper

La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...

to designate him "Man of the year". In 2022, he published his debut novel ''Le mage du Kremlin'' (''The Wizard of the Kremlin''), whose main character is modelled on Vladimir Putin's advisor

Vladislav Surkov Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (russian: Владислав Юрьевич Сурков; born 21 September 1962 or 1964) is a Russian politician and businessman. He was First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999 to 201 ...

. The novel was awarded the 2022

. The novel was a finalist for the 2022

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

. The novel lost to Brigitte Giraud's ''Vivre vite'' after fourteen rounds of voting ended in a stalemate, leading the president of the Goncourt Academy to cast the deciding vote, choosing Giraud over Giuliano da Empoli.

Books

*''Un grande futuro'' ''dietro di noi'' (Marsilio, 1996) *''La Guerra del talento'' (2000) about meritocracy and mobility in the digital economy *''Overdose'' (2002) about information overload *''Fuori controllo'' (2004) about the "brazilification" of contemporary society (translated into French by Grasset and Brazilian Portuguese by

Sulina Sulina () is a town and free port in Tulcea County, Northern Dobruja, Romania, at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. It is the easternmost point of Romania. History During the mid-Byzantine period, Sulina was a small cove, and in t ...

) *''La sindrome di Meucci'' (2005) about Italy's creative industries *''Canton Express'' (2008), a historical travelogue (translated into Portuguese by

Livraria Bertrand Livraria Bertrand is a Portuguese book retailer operating 59 branches nationwide, including 2 in Madeira. Founded in 1732, its original store in the Chiado neighborhood of Lisbon was declared to be the oldest operating bookstore in the world by t ...

) *''Obama, La politica nell'era di Facebook'' (2008) about Barack Obama's election as an example of auto-biographical politicshttp://www.radio.rai.it/radio2/28minuti/view.cfm?Q_EV_ID=273943 *''Contro'' ''gli specialisti'' (Marsilio, 2013) *''La'' ''prova del potere'' (Mondadori, 2015) *''Le'' ''Florentin'' (Grasset, 2016) *''La'' ''rabbia e l'algoritmo'' (Marsilio, 2017) *''Les ingénieurs du chaos'' (Lattès, 2019) *'' Le mage du Kremlin'' (Gallimard, 2022)

References

External links

Volta website

Venice Biennale website

Radio France Interview
(in French)

(in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

)
Venice Sessions talks
(in Italian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Da Empoli, Giuliano 1973 births Living people Italian male writers Swiss male writers Italian columnists Swiss columnists Italian journalists Swiss journalists Italian political writers Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française winners Writers from Neuilly-sur-Seine Sapienza University of Rome Sciences Po alumni