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Altai (2009)

by Wu Ming(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8806198963 (ISBN13: 9788806198961)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: Romanzo storico ambientato negli anni immediatamente precedenti alla Battaglia di Lepanto (1571), narrati in prima persona dal protagonista: ebreo di origine, veneziano (e cattolico) d'adozione, che si troverà a combattere in difesa dell'impero ottomano per realizzare i sogni di un influente ebreo alla corte del sultano.Il cerchio si chiude.I temi toccati sono molti: dalle continue persecuzioni al popolo ebraico, alle atrocità commesse in nome della Chiesa, al "melting-pot" presente nell'allora impero ottomano, le difficoltà della convivenza tra diverse etnie e culture, la solidissima unità scaturisce dall'interesse economico, la ricerca dell'io, gli aspetti del tradimento... troppi argomenti da poter essere trattati in una breve recensione.Posso dire che il libro non ... moreè avvincente: non tiene incollati alla pagina. Buona narrazione, scorrevole e stilisticamente corretta, ma una volta chiuso il libro non si sente il bisogno di riaprirlo; seppure il riaprirlo non implichi uno sforzo (altrimenti avrei abbandonato la lettura).Da buon romanzo storico, la trama inventata si fonde alle vicende storiche alla perfezione. Essendo molto interessata alla Battaglia di Lepanto ho gradito la precisione nella descrizione degli eventi e l'intreccio, questo sì, di finzione e realtà è perfetto.4 Stelle perchè non eccelle, ma in giro si trova di molto peggio.
review 2: loved. great reading for Balkan, Mediterranean history students. I easily can organize an entire course around the bookOne day I asked him how it was that what he had seen didn’t seem to have touched him.He replied that, on the contrary his heart was in mourning. All the people who had died or suffered deserved to be remembered. God was the master of righteousness. “My old shayk took the words of the prophet seriously: ‘Go and seek knowledge, even if it’s in China.’ He traveled for years, beyond the countries of the Umma, the world run by the Muslims. In a place of idolaters, he had met a wise man and exchanged thoughts with him. God, He who embraces all thing, could not have left those people completely deprived of his light.”A shadow passed across Ali’s face. “So the wise old man said to my shayk: hope and fear are like two thieves trying to slip into a house. Have you understand, my friend, what the house represents?”I shook my head. Ali picked up the thread. “The house is man’s conscience. If they find it full, the thieves will steal. If they find it empty, they are forced to leave.”Perhaps my keenness of mind had been dulled by the last events that I had seen, but I wasn’t sure I had understood. I asked, “how did you interpret the story?”Ali paused, the continued. “My only fear is to be displeasing in the eyes of God. My only hope is to be pleasing in his eyes. Other than that, my house is empty.”It was the last moral fable that Ali ever told me. less

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