No larger than a pebble, a snail contains a world as simple as it is mysterious.
Alan Wayne Berti - born in South Africa, a former war zone para commando - never thought he would be interested in something so small and seemingly insignificant. Yet one day his daughter showed him a snail cupped in her hands. "Dad, shall we play at making a snail farm?" It was a light bulb moment for Alan: what if it wasn’t just a dream or a fancy? As he gradually gets to know them, the snails actually teach him something.
In short, these little animals become his key to rediscover a new, happier and more ‘authentic’ way of looking at life.
The
authors
Alan Wayne Berti
(1971) was born in Johannesburg; as a child he moved to Italy with his family. At twenty years old he enlisted in the army, becoming a marshal, with assignments both in Italy and abroad. After he took leave, he started working for a private company; a few years ago he set up a snail farm which is still expanding in Viterbese, Italy, where he currently lives
Paolo Valentino
(1982), a writer and ghostwriter, has published
Il metodo Catfulness. La felicità insegnata da un gatto (Mondadori, 2016, English title Catfulness: A cat's guide to achieving mindfulness, Quercus, 2017) translated all over the world, and the novel Ritratto di famiglia con errore (SEM, 2017).
No larger than a pebble, a snail contains a world as simple as it is mysterious.
Alan Wayne Berti - born in South Africa, a former war zone para commando - never thought he would be interested in something so small and seemingly insignificant. Yet one day his daughter showed him a snail cupped in her hands. "Dad, shall we play at making a snail farm?" It was a light bulb moment for Alan: what if it wasn’t just a dream or a fancy? As he gradually gets to know them, the snails actually teach him something.
In short, these little animals become his key to rediscover a new, happier and more ‘authentic’ way of looking at life.
The
authors
Alan Wayne Berti
(1971) was born in Johannesburg; as a child he moved to Italy with his family. At twenty years old he enlisted in the army, becoming a marshal, with assignments both in Italy and abroad. After he took leave, he started working for a private company; a few years ago he set up a snail farm which is still expanding in Viterbese, Italy, where he currently lives
Paolo Valentino
(1982), a writer and ghostwriter, has published
Il metodo Catfulness. La felicità insegnata da un gatto (Mondadori, 2016, English title Catfulness: A cat's guide to achieving mindfulness, Quercus, 2017) translated all over the world, and the novel Ritratto di famiglia con errore (SEM, 2017).
