Description
Book SynopsisThe village of Hora is a magical place that blurs the boundaries between a mythical past and the present. It is here that Costantino Avati grows alongside his impetuous and melancholic father, Francesco; his mother, Elena, who hides a secret torment; his two sisters, Orlandina and Lucrezia; and his grandfather Lissandro, the last custodian of an era and a world that are disappearing. As Costantino feels the pangs of first love with the intriguing Roman Isabella, he also discovers the romantic allure of his own village and its rich cultural heritage. In his first novel, acclaimed author Carmine Abate transforms his Italo-Albanian (Arbëresh) hometown of Carfizzi, Calabria, into a magical realist wonderland that rivals Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo. Inspired by the oral traditions of the old Albanian bards and incorporating the poetic local dialect,
The Round Dance is a unique piece of multicultural literature that was named by the publishing house Mondadori as one of the one hundred greatest Italian novels of the twentieth century.
Trade Review"Carmine Abate's
The Round Dance is a mesmerizing, intergenerational modern epic of resistance and change, staying and leaving, recovery and dispersal. It kidnaps our senses and our mind's eye in the swirl of its poetic vitality and light-heartedness. La Luna's outstanding, sensitive translation is a true gift to English readers of all ages." -- Giovanna Miceli Jeffries * author of Bitter Trades: A Memoir *
"Carmine Abate invites readers to experience the Italo-Albanian world and to deepen their appreciation for the uniqueness of the Arbëreshë community. Step back in time through the lively characters of this brilliantly written novel that explores themes of collective memory, myth and reality, migration, and cultural transmission." -- Mithat Gashi * Albanian American activist *
"Carmine Abate's novelistic debut is a groundbreaking postmodern 'metaphor of the world.' This Italo-Albanian 'round dance,' brilliantly translated by Michelangelo La Luna, offers a blueprint for how to deal with cultural belonging in a globalized world while holding aesthetic as well as moral, religious, and social value." -- Dagmar Reichardt * coeditor of Icone della transculturalità *
"The Arbëreshë community has made southern Italy its home for six centuries by renewing its identity as a distinct ethnic, linguistic, and religious minority. Masterfully written,
The Round Dance opens their world for English-speaking audiences and is a welcome addition to the canon of migrant literature." -- Ines Murzaku * coeditor of Greek Monasticism in Southern Italy *
"Through a lovely translation of Carmine Abate's poetic language,
The Round Dance unveils to English readers the marvelous, centuries-long odyssey of the Albanian people in southern Italy and beyond, underscoring what some have called 'the powers of diaspora.'" -- Tullio Pagano * author of The Making and Unmaking of Mediterranean Landscape in Italian Literature: The Case of Ligu *
Table of ContentsForeword, "Memory and Identity Performance in the Imagined 'Hora' of Albanians of Italy or Arbëreshë," Francesco Altimari
Translator's Note, Michelangelo La Luna
Lojmë lojmë, vasha, vallen Prologue
Një
Dy
Tre
Katër
Pesë
Gjashtë
Shtatë
Tetë
Nendë
Djetë
Eleven
Vu spërvjeret Skandërbeku Viatrice delle fate
The Green-Eyed Partridge
The Smallest White Castle in the World
The Little Ladies and the Bored Little Soldier
The Round Dance
Skanderbeg's Bust
The Christmas Hearth
The Fake Mericano
Zëmërgùri Two Fingers of Honor on the Forehead
Ish një jëmë shumë e mirë Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Shkoi një ditë mjegullore The Final Vallja
Author's Note
Notes on Contributors
