History (La Storia #1-2)
Elsa Morante
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
4.22
· 18 ratings · 600 pages · Published: 05 Apr 1974
The central character in this powerful and unforgiving novel is Ida Mancuso, a schoolteacher whose husband has died and whose feckless teenage son treats the war as his playground. A German soldier on his way to North Africa rapes her, falls in love with her, and leaves her pregnant with a boy whose survival becomes Ida's passion.
Around these two other characters come and go, each caught up by the war which is like a river in flood. We catch glimpses of bombing raids, street crimes, a cattle car from which human cries emerge, an Italian soldier succumbing to frostbite on the Russian front, the dumb endurance of peasants who have lived their whole lives with nothing and now must get by with less than nothing.
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- historical fiction 3
- classics 3
- war/big battles 3
- 20th century 3
- world war II 2
- literary fiction 2
- military 2
- military, war & conflict 1
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- audiobook 2
- book 1
- adult fiction 1
- box set 1
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The 'La Storia' series
4.22 · 18 ratings
box-set · fiction · 20th-century · literary · audiobook · military · female-author · historical-fiction · violent-conflict · historical · adult · ww2 · book · literary-fiction · war · classics
La Storia reading order and complete book list ❯