Ischia – Atmospheres of Yesterday and Today

THE MAY OF BOOKS 2026
April 23 – May 31
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Biblioteca Comunale Antoniana,
Parco Culturale Ischia and
F.I.D.A.P.A. Sezione Ischia

present

Ischia – Atmospheres of Yesterday and Today
by Erasma De Simone

Nostalgia and love for one’s homeland are the emotional forces that drive this episodic novel. Nostalgia — understood as a vision of the past that smooths away its rough edges and celebrates the atmosphere of a now distant era — permeates the first part of the book, in which Viola, the teenage protagonist of the 1960s, lives among the beauty and traditions of an Ischia that no longer exists.

The passing of the seasons becomes the ideal backdrop for an emotional exploration of the island’s places, people, and customs, all seen through her eyes.

In the second part, Viola, now elderly, with a deep and unchanged love for her homeland, finds a way to keep her personal connection with the island alive by writing poems and stories that bring to the forefront the Ischia of yesterday and today.

Biographical Note

Erasma De Simone was born in Ischia on March 21, 1953. She earned a degree in Philosophy in 1977 from the University of Naples Federico II.

Through public competitive examinations, she began her career as a primary school teacher and later became a secondary school teacher of Italian and History at the Istituto Alberghiero Telese and the Istituto Commerciale e per Geometri E. Mattei. She also taught History, Philosophy, and Human Sciences at the Liceo Statale Ischia.

She retired on September 1, 2020. She currently devotes herself, for pleasure and passion, to creative writing.