Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the Viareggio Prize, a vivid portrait of Italy on the brink of social upheaval in the 1970s.
Trade Review"Gardini's language is forceful and refined." -- Silvia Mazzocchi - La Repubblica
"A combative novel, a multilayered piece of fiction, a triumphant narrative mechanism." -- Matteo Giancotti - Corriere Della Sera
"A gentle, bittersweet, tragicomic rite-of-passage novel translated into lively English by Moore." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Combining elements of comedy and tragedy, Gardini’s novel is a call on today’s Italy to know its own language, to speak with substance, and to reconsider the relationship between words and meaning—a relationship broken by mass culture. As Leopardi declares, there is in words an exhortation to probe the depths of truth—a calling to believe that culture and education can still save us." -- from the citation for the Viareggio Prize
