Sports & Recreation

Join Andrea Marcolongo, renowned classicist and one of today’s most original thinkers on antiquity, for an inspiring journey as she learns to run—and to live—like a Greek.

Why do we run? To what end, all the effort and pain? Wherefore this love of muscle, speed, and sweat? The Greeks were the first to ask these questions, the first to suspend war, work, politics, to enjoy public celebrations of athletic prowess. They invented sport and they were also the first to understand how physical activity connected to our mental well-being.

After a lifetime spent with her head and heart in the books trying to think like a Greek, at a professional and personal crossroads, Andrea Marcolongo set out to learn how to run like a Greek. In doing so, she deepened her understanding of the ancient civilization she has spent decades studying and discovered more about herself than she could ever have dreamed.

In this spirited, generous, and engaging book, Marcolongo shares her erudition and her own journey to understanding that a healthy body is, in more ways than one might guess, a healthy mind.

Born in Genoa in 1960, Paolo Cangelosi began to practice Ju Jitsu at the age of eight. Soon after, he encountered Master Fu Han Tong, a charismatic Kung Fu master trained and taught alone, in a shed in the center of Genoa. Cangelosi’s development from student to master is a story of dedication, detachment, and a personal journey that takes from from Italy to China, Hong Kong, and Thailand, and on to international recognition as one of the leading practitioners of these ancient arts.

Cangelosi’s peregrinations and adventures form a gripping spiritual and physical quest full of strife, beauty, encounters with extraordinary people, and noble healers.

In this passionately told biography, one of Cangelosi’s followers and alumni, Nathalie Tocci, tells her own and Paolo Cangelosi’s stories.