Dino Buzzati

The Tartar Steppe

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher; Reprint edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879239921

 

It is a sublime book, and Buzzati a master of the written word.
– Sunday Times (London)

Often likened to Kafka's The Castle , this great Italian novel, first published in 1945, is both a scathing criticism of military life and a meditation on the human thirst for glory. It tells of young Giovanni Drago, who is posted to a remote fort overlooking the vast Tartar steppe, the first line of defense against a rumored barbarian invasion. Although not intending to stay, Giovanni one day finds that years have passed, almost without his noticing, as he has come to share his fellow-soldiers' patient vigil. At last the fort is downgraded and Giovanni's ambitions fade – until the hour that the enemy begins massing on the desolate horizon...

 

Read Tim Spark's review of Buzzati's novel: here