Alessandro Baricco is an Italian author who explores the boundaries between genres and forms in his work. His prose is distinguished by its lyrical quality, rhythmic language, and frequent focus on themes of memory, identity, and the power of storytelling. Baricco blends literary innovation with a performative approach, creating a unique reading experience.
France, 1861. A young silk breeder has to travel overland to distant Japan, out of bounds to foreigners, to smuggle out healthy silkworms, when an epidemic has wiped out the European hatcheries. He sets eyes upon his Japanese host's concubine and is at once in love, with never a word spoken.
Il romanzo racconta la vita di Ultimo Parri, che il lettore incontra bambino in una campagna del Nord Italia all'inizio del Novecento e segue in luoghi e vicende diversi fino agli anni Sessanta. Il destino di Ultimo si svolge e si compie all'interno di una narrazione a più voci. La compongono il rumoroso arrivo delle prime automobili, la passione per i motori e per le gare, un singolare rapporto padre-figlio, atroci scorci della Grande Guerra, una storia d'amore che non inizia e non finisce e si alimenta di segni e di tracce. Il romanzo, che utilizza registri stilistici diversi, è percorso da un senso di sospensione, stupefazione e sgomento. Pubblicato con 4 copertine diverse, di Gianluigi Toccafondo
From international bestselling author, Alessandro Baricco, comes a scintillating and sensual novel about a young woman's ingress into a fantastically strange family. The hand of the young woman in question has been promised to the scion of a noble family. She is to make her preparations for marriage at the family's villa, where the inhabitants never seem to sleep. The atmosphere turns surreal as the days pass and her presence on the family estate begins to make itself felt on her future in-laws. In this erotically charged and magical novel, Alessandro Baricco portrays a cast of mysterious characters who exist outside of the rules of causation as he tells a story, an adult fable, about fate and the difficult job of confronting the Other and creating an Us.