Chronicle in Stone
Tags:
Set in Albania
Male author
Description:
Masterful in its simplicity, Chronicle in Stone is a touching coming-of-age story and a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. Surrounded by the magic of beautiful women and literature, a boy must endure the deprivations of war as he suffers the hardships of growing up. His sleepy country has just thrown off centuries of tyranny, but new waves of domination inundate his city. Through the boy’s eyes, we see the terrors of World War II as he witnesses fascist invasions, allied bombings, partisan infighting, and the many faces of human cruelty—as well as the simple pleasures of life. Evacuating to the countryside, he expects to find an ideal world full of extraordinary things, but discovers instead an archaic backwater where a severed arm becomes a talisman and deflowered girls mysteriously vanish. Woven between the chapters of the boy’s story are tantalizing fragments of the city’s history. As the devastation mounts, the fragments lose coherence, and we perceive firsthand how the violence of war destroys more than just buildings and bridges.
Reviews:
(3 months ago) |
07 Aug, 2024
Knowing nothing about Albania, I decided to read this book and I am glad I did. The book recounts the traumatic events the citizens of Gjirokaster, close to the Greek border, endured from around 1939, with the invasion by the Italians, then the Greeks, the Italians again and then finally the Germans in 1943. It does not go into what happened after the Germans left so I’ll have to look that up for myself. The story is narrated through the eyes of a child and his curiosity in girls, murders, hermaphrodites, homosexuals and planes give this story a childish simplicity
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Challenge:
Read Around Europe Challenge
Country:
Albania
Albania
Language:
EN
Genre:
Historical fiction Historical
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