How I Lost The War (original 2009; edition 2011)

by Filippo Bologna (Author)

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Time runs slowly in a sleepy Tuscan village once renowned for its thermal baths ... until the arrival of Ottone Gattai, a ruthless businessman who has come to this idyllic countryside to revive the legendary baths as an ultra-modern tourist resort. appalled by the transformation of his beloved birthplace, federico, scion of the landowning Cremona family, decides to take action. When peaceful protest proves ineffective, he and his girlfriend Lea launch a guerilla war against the forces of globalisation. This richly satirical first novel by a brilliant young Italian writer is the story of this strange war.… (more)

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Member:	Aminboldi
Title:	How I Lost The War
Authors:	Filippo Bologna (Author)
Info:	Pushkin Press (2011), 280 pages
Collections:	Translated Fiction
Rating:
Tags:	None

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How I Lost the War by Filippo Bologna (2009)

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The book concerns the corporatisation of a spa and the surrounding village, mirroring the spa being used as a Fascist propaganda tool under Mussolini in the past. Whilst the main part of the book is told from the present, the narrator's family from the past intrudes with a question over inheritance of destiny, and the future destiny of the village and world is spelled out.

Whilst the villager's tale seems a very local one, us as readers are linked by our own concessions to globalisation and the wars we may be losing or not caring to fight. The author does well to tread the line between hopeless nostalgia and progress to keep these contradictions alive, making the book very real to life where there are no easy answers.

The writing is great, original, and the the poetry (as mentioned by the quotes from Italian review on the cover) is certainly maintained by the translation. (

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rrmmff2000 | Nov 4, 2011 |

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▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Premio Bagutta (Sezione Opera Prima – 2010)

Premio Fiesole (2009)

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Canonical title

Original title

Come ho perso la guerra

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2009

People/Characters

Federico Cremona

Important places

Tuscany, Italy

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

A dog had ended up inside.

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

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Original language

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▾Book descriptions

Time runs slowly in a sleepy Tuscan village once renowned for its thermal baths ... until the arrival of Ottone Gattai, a ruthless businessman who has come to this idyllic countryside to revive the legendary baths as an ultra-modern tourist resort. appalled by the transformation of his beloved birthplace, federico, scion of the landowning Cremona family, decides to take action. When peaceful protest proves ineffective, he and his girlfriend Lea launch a guerilla war against the forces of globalisation. This richly satirical first novel by a brilliant young Italian writer is the story of this strange war.

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Book description

Haiku summary