Singapore is a city of 'future past,' says Paolo Giordano

The Italian author is among the 300 people who have been invited to speak or conduct workshops at the festival

- Clement Yong

A city of "future past" is how Italian author Paolo Giordano described Singapore, an unexpectedly honest assessment when asked for his first impressions of the city-state.

Meet The Author: Paolo Giordano was among the first events at Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) 2024 and had just begun at The Arts House on the morning of Nov 9 when he dropped the bombshell.

It would later stir up so many reactions from the audience including, for one man, who said it "put a vague feeling that I've always had into some semblance of recognition".

Pressed to elaborate, the author of the 2008 novel The Solitude Of Prime Numbers, which won Italy's most prestigious literary prize, the Premio Strega, said he was responding elementally to Singapore's architecture, which reflects "an idea of the future in it, but is not the future of today".

The prominence of Singapore's luxury market - an over-commercialisation now passe - also surprised him as he went about researching his next novel which will be partially set in Singapore.

He acknowledged: "It's always dangerous to say what you think about a place in front of the people who live in it."

Running till Nov 17, SWF raised its curtains on Nov 8 and features over 200 events that are expected to attract thousands.