Product Description

History was written nearly thirty years after Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia spent a year in hiding among remote farming villages in the mountains south of Rome. There she witnessed the full impact of the war and first formed the ambition to write an account of what history - the great political events driven by men of power, wealth, and ambition - does when it reaches the realm of ordinary people struggling for life and bread.

The central character in this powerful and unforgiving novel is Ida Mancuso, a schoolteacher whose husband has died and whose feckless teenage son treats the war as his playground. A German soldier on his way to North Africa rapes her, falls in love with her, and leaves her pregnant with a boy whose survival becomes Ida's passion.

Around these two other characters come and go, each caught up by the war which is like a river in flood. We catch glimpses of bombing raids, street crimes, a cattle car from which human cries emerge, an Italian soldier succumbing to frostbite on the Russian front, the dumb endurance of peasants who have lived their whole lives with nothing and now must get by with less than nothing.


"One of the few novels in any language that renders the full horror of Hitler's war, the war that never gets into the books . . ."-- Alfred Kazan, Esquire

"A storyteller who spellbinds."-- Stephen Spender, The New York Review of Books

"A marvel of a novel . . . all the pleasures that fiction can offer."-- Doris Grumbach, Saturday Review

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66869 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10
• Released on: 2000-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 600 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781586420048
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
Written in 1974 but first published in the United States in 1977, this was Morante's first novel in 18 years. As the cryptic title indicates, the theme of this novel, said LJ's reviewer, is how "history obscures individual lives." Though the book portrays the brutal existence of one Italian family after World War II, LJ's reviewer added that "there is so much to praise in this long, wonderfully rich novel, including the effortless translation, that its flawsDoccasional clumsiness of narration, repetitionDare minor indeed" (LJ 4/15/77). The edition contains a new foreword by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

About the Author
ELSA MORANTE was born in 1912 and raised in Rome. In 1941 she married the prominent author Alberto Moravia, whose anti-Fascist reputation forced them to flee the German occupation and hide in the mountains until the Liberation. During this time Morante began to write her first novel, House of Liars. She would complete three more major works during her career, winning the Premio Strega in 1957 for Arturo's Island. Her final novel, Aracoeli, earned her the Prix Medicis Etranger in 1985, the year of her death.

Customer Reviews

The real thing . . .
I read this book over four years ago, and I still come to this website to see if any new titles have been added to the "If you liked this book..." section. I have a B.A. and M.A. in literature, read voraciously, and this remains in my top 10 list of all novels (among others, "Gathering Evidence," by Thomas Bernhardt, "Maria Zef," by Paola Driga, "Independent People," by Halldor Laxness . . .). It is one of those books that, should you hear of it somehow and read it, you will think a long time about how lucky you are that you "met" this novel, and this author, if you've never read her before; and you will shudder to think you might have gone through your life and missed such a book, and you will begin to wonder how many other books there are out there like this, some that you know you will never find. This is a serious novel, and a deeply moving one, especially if you have a fondness for literature about children. But this is not a prerequisite. When I began the novel, I didn't believe I could come to care so deeply for a fictional character, much less a five-year-old boy who, for the majority of the novel, is too young to speak. And his dogs! This is a truly magical novel. During the last fifty pages, I could not possibly put this book down, and my whole being was affected for days after reading the book, and I can never really forget it. If you don't like to feel, don't read this book. But if you do, you will rarely, if ever, be so richly rewarded.

Incredible!
When I first read this book, I cried so much that it was hard to breathe. Beautifully written, beautifully translated, this is one of the best books of the second half of the twentieth century. This is the story of a young Italian woman and her sons, mostly during World War II. The beautiful portrait of the young baby, and then young boy, was just so moving. And I loved the descriptions of their dog, Bella. As she looked at each of her puppies, she thought it was surely the most beautiful one in the world. Morante captured the essence of motherhood. Of course, life has tragedy, and this is a very, very sad book. But if you want a good story, and marvelous writing, writing that is so beautiful that you are just stunned, then read this book.

heart-wrenching
This is a story set in war-torn Italy that follows the life of a simple, good child-like woman, as she deals with widowhood, rape, and survival with her two sons.

The beauty of this stunning book, is in the descriptions of the characters, and the emotions each one is experiencing from the point of view of an anonymous bystander. As the years pass in this family's life, it's as though we were so intimately connected with their pain and anguish that we are somehow responsible because we do nothing but watch from afar. I was overwhelmed with such feelings of compassion for the struggling mother, her unruly eldest son, and most of all, for her innocent Useppe, the child born of her rape.

Elsa Morante's ability in touching my heart with words that helped me "experience" each moment with these special characters, is incredible. She describes fleeting moments of love, anguish, and sorrow, without naming them, and yet they are so recognizable, they just tug at your heart.

This writer has an extraordinary ability with words, that special ability to paint feelings so delicately, you are not aware that you have been touched until the end of the passage. And often I would have to pause before reading on, to wonder at the effect the words have had on me. I have never experienced that kind of thing in a book before, and I have read all my life. I'll never forget this delicate and sensitive work.