“I didn’t need any God to make the revolution.”
We chose to include this book in the calendar of the “Stazione BooktoMi 2022” review well before it reached the right popularity because it was selected among the finalists of the Strega Award; this already makes us understand our opinion on Bertante’s new work.
In the form of a novel, the birth of one of the best-known terrorist groups is told: the Brigate Rosse. But don’t be fooled. Although the form used is that of a fictional story, there are solid links to recent Italian history and, as the author himself confided to us, behind the words told there was an intense work of collecting oral testimonies from those who that season he experienced it firsthand.
The background of a politically, socially and economically turbulent Milan accompanies the life of Alberto Boscolo, a young university student on the threshold of his political maturity. Undecided between institutional struggle and armed struggle. To convince him definitively for the second option will be the massacre of Piazza Fontana, and the subsequent “active illness” of the anarchist Pinelli. Alberto is the mirror of an entire generation, which overnight, found itself on the wrong side of history, because no matter how much one might think of being driven by strong ideals, armed struggle and the killing of people can never be justified.
In our opinion, to read the book it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the political history of republican Italy; otherwise, many of the references in the book would be lost, and it would not be priced for its true substance. In this regard, although fictional, we really liked the narration of the birth of the name Brigate Rosse (which we cannot reveal to you, otherwise we would spoil the pleasure of reading) and the symbol of the five-pointed star (same as above).
The writing is masterful, and even the decision to divide the text into small paragraphs is optimal in dictating the rhythm of the narration, as well as being a precise homage to another author much loved by Bertante (let’s see if you can figure out who, once finished reading).
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Alessandro Bertante, Mordi e Fuggi, Baldini + Castoldi, Milano, 2022
