Italy flag Historical books from Italy

Recommended historical books (6)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you are into historical here are some historical books from Italy for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.

1.

If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Primo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War. Wracked by fear, hunger and fierce rivalries, they link up, fall apart, struggle to stay alive and to sabotage the efforts of the all-powerful German army. A compelling tale of action, resistance and epic adventure, it also reveals Levi's characteristic compassion and deep insight into the moral dilemmas of total war. It ranks alongside THE ... continue

2.

In Search of Amrit Kaur : A Lost Princess and Her Vanished World by Livia Manera Sambuy EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
As she builds her own life anew, an Italian writer embarks on an all-consuming search for the true story of the mysterious princess H. H. Amrit Kaur of Mandi. On a sweltering day in 2007, having just lost her brother to illness, Livia Manera Sambuy finds herself standing before a 1924 photograph of a stunningly elegant Indian princess at a museum in Mumbai. What’s written in the caption will change her life forever. This gorgeous Punjabi princess, it’s said, sold her jewels in occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, only to be arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp, where she di... continue

3.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante EN

Rating: 4 (39 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times–bestselling “enduring masterpiece” about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic). Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting ... continue

4.

Papaya Salad by Elisa Macellari EN

0 Ratings
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
The debut graphic novel from Thai-Italian illustrator Elisa Macellari, Papaya Salad tells the story of her great-uncle Sompong who found himself in Europe on military scholarship on the eve of World War II. A gentle and resolute man in love with books and languages, in search of his place in the world, Sompong chronicles his life during the war and falling for his wife, finding humor and joy even as the world changes irrevocably around him This Winner of the 2019 Autori di Immagini Silver Medal in the Comics category tells the human story of the War, from a perspective not typically seen. "An ... continue

5.

The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
Levi wrote of the moral collapse that occurred in Auschwitz and the fallibility of human memory that allows such atrocities to recur. Levi's last book published before his death in 1987.

6.

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Europe / Italy flag Italy
Description:
A classic of modern fiction. Set in the 1860s, THE LEOPARD is the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution.