In this taut novella set in the Dolomites, a cat-and-mouse interview opens between a young magistrate and an older suspect. It becomes an examination of perception versus truth and of the group protection afforded in a moment of collective action versus the echoing responsibility of the individual over 'the leprosy of time'.
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Summary
In this taut novella set in the Dolomites, a cat-and-mouse interview opens between a young magistrate and an older suspect. It becomes an examination of perception versus truth and of the group protection afforded in a moment of collective action versus the echoing responsibility of the individual over 'the leprosy of time'.
Description
One morning, high in the Dolomite mountains, two hikers are some distance apart. The path in places is narrow and perilous. One man falls to his death. The other sounds the alarm. But these men are not strangers. Members of the same revolutionary group forty years earlier, the first had betrayed the second, who must now hold his own against a young magistrate intent upon having him tried for murder.
Was their meeting an improbable encounter, or an impossible coincidence?Impossible is a brilliant hymn to the lure of the mountains, an engrossing illumination of political brotherhood, and also the subtlest of detective stories.Critic Reviews
''A subtle detective story beginning when a hiker suspiciously falls to his death in the Dolomites ... Thoughtful and wise about life and landscape, it's the most cerebral of whodunnits'' - Ben East, Observer
''The only true first-rate writer that the new millennium has given to Italy'' - Giorgio De Rienzo, Corriere della Serra
''A book with rare intensity that is classic Erri De Luca, political engagement, loyalty, fidelity ... a passion for nature and above all the mountains, rigour and brotherhood'' - Alexandra Schwartzbrod, Liberation
''A unique and remarkable novel'' - Loup Besmond de Senneville, Croix
About the Author
Erri De Luca is an award-winning writer, poet and activist whose literary awards include the Prix Andre Malraux, the European Book Prize and the European Prize for Literature. The author of more than seventy books translated into more than thirty languages, he has been called 'the writer of the decade' by Corriere della Sera. A dedicated mountain climber, he lives a reclusive life in the hills surrounding Rome.
N.S. Thompson is a poet and critic and translator of Italian fiction and poetry. He has worked as a gardener and museum curator in Italy and as an academic and creative writing tutor in Oxford.Product Details
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