Name: Into the War
ISBN: 9780544146389

Italo Calvino

Appearing here in its first English translation, Into the War contains three stories drawing on Italo Calvino's memories of the Second World War in Italy.

Into the War

maitha mana

This is a light read and definitelt a pleasurable one. It follows the story of two young boys who have been recruited in Mussolini's Army during the second world war, and the transition from a peaceful boyhood into that of war. Being caught inbetween cynicism and overwhelming trauma. There's a recurring theme of rot, old age, mutilation, and detachment- which signifies the toll war has on everyone- young or old.

'The war had that color and that smell; it was a grey, swarming continent, in which we were now immersed, a kind of desolate China, infinite like the sea.'

Nick Gracilla

Italo Calvino's short but immersive tales of everyday life in Italy as it heads towards calamity in 1940 highlight the odd perspective of often boring routines thrust upon us, especially in times of war. Semi autobiographical, Calvino's prose is tight and beautifully crafted. Highly recommended.

Set in Italy in the summer of 1940, this trio of stories explores the relationships between the different generations caught up in the war as well as Calvino's own experiences as a teenager. In the title story, 'Into the War', we are given an insight into what life was really like for those too young to be conscripted into Mussolini's army, while in 'The Avanguardisti in Menton', Calvino and his friends take a revealingly anti-climactic trip to the garrisoned French town of Menton, the sole Italian conquest of the early months of the conflict. The final story, 'UNPA Nights', is a touching, comic tale of friendship in a blackout, where the narrator's imagination wanders as he roams through the seedier parts of the darkened town instead of guarding the school buildings. Into the War is Calvino at his autobiographical best, combining brilliantly recollected memory with compelling wit and perfect prose.

Into the War

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