Mario Calabresi comes to gres art 671 to present his new book “Alzarsi all’alba”. The event is part of the project “Librai per un anno”, in collaboration with Fiera Librai and Fondazione Pesenti.

We live in an age of convenience, where everything is designed to appear easy. We’ve deluded ourselves into thinking that every goal can be achieved with minimal effort, that shortcuts are the preferred path, and that speed is synonymous with success.
Yet for millions of people, hard work is not only a daily companion but an essential part of life — “a daughter of duty, responsibility, and love for one’s craft.”

It’s the young coach who teaches children the beauty of perseverance; the husband who has cared for his ailing wife for 26 years; the father who runs ultramarathons because it’s the only way he can feel close to the daughter he lost; the woman who, at 89, brings flowers to her husband’s grave every morning, cleans the cemetery bathrooms so others will find them welcoming, and then rushes to bake focaccias at her restaurant.
It’s also the piano teacher who returned to his father’s vineyards to honor a life of sacrifice, the art restorer who cultivates patience to preserve beauty — all those who belong to the “dawn patrol” that keeps the world running.

“You have to love hard work,” said Veronica, a young Paralympic athlete, before challenging the sand and the icy sea in her training. Her bold and countercultural words were the spark that ignited this book.

In an age of instant gratification, Mario Calabresi invites us to rediscover the value of time, patience, and perseverance through a mosaic of lives that deserve to be seen and acknowledged — even when hard work is not a choice but an act of profound love.
With the attentive and empathetic eye of a great journalist, he takes us on a new journey — one full of hope, free of rhetoric yet rich in humanity.

Mario Calabresi, journalist and writer, is the director and co-founder of the podcast company Chora Media and author of the weekly newsletter Altre/Storie (mariocalabresi.it).
He was formerly the editor-in-chief of La Stampa and la Repubblica.
For Mondadori, he has published Spingendo la notte più in là (2007), La fortuna non esiste (2009), Cosa tiene accese le stelle (2011), Non temete per noi, la nostra vita sarà meravigliosa (2015), La mattina dopo (2019), Quello che non ti dicono (2020), Una volta sola (2022), and A occhi aperti (2023).