With "Tunis Mon Amour. A Journey to the City of a Thousand Souls" Leonardo Martinelli narrates one of the most complex and fascinating capitals of the Mediterranean through a personal and immersive perspective. Published by Edt in the La Biblioteca di Ulisse series, the book It is much more than a reportage or a travel guide: it is a slow and conscious journey through a layered city, made up of stories, places and identities that intertwine without ever being exhausted in a single definition.
Martinelli's Tunis: A Choral Tale of Places and People
Far from the formulas of tourist guides and the tone of traditional reportage, Martinelli constructs a story made of encounters, itineraries, and daily observations. The city emerges as a mosaic of different worlds: the Schooner with its Italian and maritime memory, the Medina with its traditions and cultural ferment, the modern centre, the popular suburbs, the neighbourhoods overlooking the sea such as The Marsa, Sidi Bou Said e Carthage.
What gives shape to this mosaic are above all the peopleMusicians, chefs, artists, psychoanalysts, filmmakers, activists, migrants, custodians of ancient homes, fisherwomen, DJs, boxers, and young people seeking a future become the book's protagonists. What emerges is a vibrant and contradictory Tunis, constantly evolving, suspended between Africa and the Mediterranean, between colonial memory and the global present, between the desire for freedom and new social fragilities.
More than just a travel book, Tunis My Love It's a choral tale that captures the authentic face of a city steeped in diversity, influence, and coexistence. It's an invitation to look beyond the clichés of Tunisia, through the eyes of those who live there every day.
At the end of the journey, one image remains above all: the sea. A conclusive and at the same time original element, boundary and opening, promise and threat. This is where the meaning of the book is condensed: the possibility, fragile but still present, that coexistence between differences is not just a utopia.
Leonardo Martinelli
Leonardo Martinelli He is a journalist, author, and radio host. He lives in Tunis and writes about North Africa for various Italian media outlets. He previously worked for over twenty years at Sun 24 Hours, also as a correspondent from cities such as Brussels, Tokyo, Montevideo and Paris, and later was a correspondent and correspondent for The print from France. He was also editor-in-chief of FIRST online, the online newspaper of economics and finance, and has collaborated for a long time with Radio 3 as an author and presenter. His books include Michelle Bachelet: The Spring of Chile, Almost a novel. Economics explained to those who don't understand it e The Land of Utopia: A Journey to Pepe Mujica's Uruguay.
