“Il raccoglitore nella segale”. The Author of “Porci con le ali” Between Movements, Feminism, and Child Neuropsychiatry: The Story of Marco Lombardo Radice
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 6:30 PM
Fondazione Corrente
Via Carlo Porta 5, Milan
Presentation of the book by Matteo Fiorani Il raccoglitore nella segale. Marco Lombardo Radice, storia di una fantasia (Donzelli, 2026).
Fifty years after the publication of the bestseller Porci con le ali. Diario sessuo-politico di due adolescenti, the controversial, revolutionary, scandalous novel read by more than two million people, young and not so young, we retrace the life of the man who wrote it in 1976 together with Lidia Ravera.
The book by Matteo Fiorani, Il raccoglitore nella segale (Donzelli, 2026) tells the story of Marco Lombardo Radice (1949-1989) following the thread of a fantasy he had as a teenager: an avid reader of The Catcher in the Rye, in life he wanted to become, like the protagonist of Salinger’s novel, “the catcher in the rye,” the one who saves childlike humanity from the edge of the precipice. A fantasy that, in different forms, ran through his entire life.
From his upbringing in a prominent family of Italian culture and politics, to his activism in the 1968 student movement and in Lotta Continua, to his work as a child neuropsychiatrist in a ward for “impossible” cases in the 1980s, Lombardo Radice’s biography becomes an opportunity to discuss the era of social movements, their relationship with feminism, and the interplay between individual motivations and collective dynamics.
Discussing this with the author:
- Giovanna Rosa, Fondazione Elvira Badaracco
- Giorgio Bigatti, Fondazione ISEC
Introduction by: Deianira Amico, Fondazione Corrente