We have been working on promoting a great new book called La gente che sta bene (The Well-Off) by Federico Baccomo “Duchesne”. The press has started buzzing about it and we’re about to put the special game site online. It’s a fun idea where you can win a free copy of the book and participate in the official presentation with the author himself. Stay tuned on the book’s Facebook page and try your hand in a challenge with the mysterious Giuseppe Sobreroni, the main character in the book.

Not long before the recent revolts in North Africa and the Middle East, we were working on this particular blog pertaining to that very region of the world, to promote an interesting book by Jacques Charmelot. Our idea was to talk about the book the way a friend of the author would have, say, a journalist-friend who collects news items and stories about his investigative reporting from Baghdad on the war in Iraq. Real questions arise from Wikileaks documents and from the Abu Ghraib investigations, all told by an imaginary character who is in a certain way connected with the new book. It’s a mingling of the true and the probable, something we love to experiment with, as you know. Each post begins with a mysterious sentence in Arabic… check it out!

The novel has now arrived in bookstores and we’d suggest you read it: it’s got a gripping plot and makes some very interesting references to current and recent events in the Middle East.

The TV2000 program La compagnia del libro (n.d.t. The Book Club) came to visit us at the H-Farm. We told them the story of our company and what we do, in a quick tracking shot that runs from WHAIWHAI to our art catalogs, from our foundation to our prospects for the future. Watch the interview with Tomas Barazza in our offices.

For the 50th Anniversary of Marsilio Editori, the program about books also set aside lots of room to discuss the history of the Venetian publishing house, which we are now part of. This installment includes an interesting lengthy interview with Cesare De Michelis (italian).

After a long wait, we’re delighted to announce that the iPhone app for WHAIWHAI is here! We’ve been working on it for quite a while, and now it’s finally available for free at the AppleStore. This application is designed to support all the contents of all the editions in the WHAIWHAI city treasure hunt collection. For the time being, though, only the Venice and Verona editions are available for download (in Italian and in English), at a special price of 2.39 euros. The city adventure full of enigmas and secrets has put on a new face, shedding the printed books and text messages to use the iPhone’s functions. We’re really interested in understanding how this different kind of experience comes off – we’d like to know if players appreciate it in the same way. And don’t worry, we’ll soon add all the other editions in our collection. Check out the WHAIWHAI blog post for more details.