How I Lost the War

by Filippo Bologna

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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 show more globalisation. This richly satirical first novel by a brilliant young Italian writer is the story of this strange war. show less

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rrmmff2000 225 reviews

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

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