"Distracted generation" comes of age: award-winning Italian writer

With smartphones, Facebook and Twitter, today's young people are living in an increasingly connected world. In an interview with Xinhua, Italian writer Paolo Giordano described such young people as the "distracted generation" -- who are accustomed to the daily use of social networking and the perpetual distraction this causes.

"I always find that mine is a sort of distracted generation. We're distracted by so many things and we are kind of scattered in many places at the same time," said Giordano, the youngest writer to win Italy's prestigious Premio Strega literary award for his debut novel "The Solitude of Prime Numbers."

In his second literary offering "The Human Body," the 31-year-old Italian writer details the story of a platoon of young soldiers fighting in the deserts of Afghanistan. The author describes how only under such extreme circumstances can members of the so-called "distracted generation" re-discover their true identities.

"The idea was that in order to be able to describe my generation, I have to put it in the middle of a desert with threats coming from all around. So now they are trapped and they can't escape from that. They could finally observe what they were," he said.

Though not everyone will have to fight on an actual battlefield someday, Giordano said everyone goes through some kind of "war" at some point in their lives, adding that it is through personal struggles that the "distracted generation" can truly find itself.

Born in 1982, Giordano may be seen as a maverick by some of his generational peers for his refusal to use social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, which he believes use up too much of one's energy.

Giordano studied physics at the University of Turin and holds a Ph.D in theoretical particle physics. However, the success of his novel "The Solitude of Prime Numbers," which has sold over 5 million copies across the world and been translated into over 30 languages, prompted him to leave the world of physics and devote himself entirely to writing.

Being a physicist and novelist both require a great deal of solitude. Giordano has a firm understanding of loneliness, making it an important theme in his writing.

"To me, solitude is always a sort of resource. It makes things slow down a little bit. I'm probably a little bit slow, so I always need time for processing. And I can only do that if I'm alone," Giordano said.

Giordano said the "distracted generation" should learn to cope with solitude and the fragility of their inner world.

After spending many sedentary hours in his office, the young Italian wrote "The Solitude of Prime Numbers," in which two young and lonely people become close to each other, but never end up being together, not unlike two prime numbers that are separated by an even number.

"People love the book because I tried to discuss the loneliness one might encounter in the course of growing up," Giordano said. "People of my generation share a collective complex of loneliness, reminiscence and remorse amid a fast-changing world. That is probably why the book is so appealing to them."

But Giordano said he has no intention to continue writing about youth and growing up in the future. Following the success of his first book, he went to military bases in Afghanistan to experience the impact of war on individual soldiers in order to better understand the inner world of the"distracted generation."` "Not to aspire to success," he said when asked how young writers should achieve success.

"The principle goal is to write a book you really want to write. Just imitate who you think is the best writer for you and try to write something as beautiful as that. Then success, readers, publication -- they are all natural consequences," he said.