Pennacchi Antonio: Mussolinijev kanal

Antonio Pennacchi: Mussolini's Canal

In 1926, Mussolini began the process of reclamation of the Pontino marshland, one of the most ambitious projects during the twenty-year fascist rule during which he drained and turned into arable land hundreds of square kilometers of marshy valley near Rome. New cities sprung up on a completely new land, and Mussolini's canal was the lifeblood. All that was missing was a new population, so, attracted by the promise of their own piece of land, thousands of people from the north settled in that area, leaving their native land where they had no choice but to starve. Entire families have settled there with grandmothers who know how to steer a two-wheeler and take care of livestock, men as strong as bulls, sassy women who laugh and dance with everyone at village parties, and troupes of children of all ages. Among them are the heroes of this extraordinary saga - members of the Peruzzi family.

They came down from the Po valley at the persuasion of the charismatic and courageous uncle Pericle, who thanks to his daring and valuable contribution gained importance in the Fascist Party, but who does not blindly submit to its orders. His old parents, all his brothers and sisters-in-law, as well as his grandmother, who is gentle but steadfast in determining the household rules, to whom the sons obey without question, come down with him. There is a vain mother's pet Adelchi, more inclined to command than to work. There are Iseo and Themistocles, Treves and Turati, brothers linked by a strong love that is stingy in words but strong in deeds, woven from the promises they make in broken voices both in the field where they work and in the bloody trenches of war. And there is a horde of sisters, sometimes good and full of compassion, sometimes vicious and poisonous like adders. And Armida, Pericles' wife, the most beautiful married to the best. The most generous, able to love without reservation and fear and when it comes to the most tragic of all loves. And finally, Paride, the favorite nephew, good and just, but, just like the hero after whom he was named, doomed to become the cause of the misfortune that will befall and crush the Peruzzi family.

"Mussolini's Canal" is a grandiose poem that, in the tone of grand narratives, interweaves the dramatic and strange adventures of its protagonists with the equally fraught events of half a century of Italian history. This novel is the winner of the most prestigious Italian literary prize Strega, and for Antonio Pennacchi, the Agro Pontino space is like a muse, like a ghost, what Yoknapatawpha was for William Faulkner, and Mussolini's canal was "the book for which he came into the world". people and events of half a century of Italian history, awarded with the most prestigious Italian literary prize Stega and the Acqui Storia, Libro dell'anno del Tg1 and Asti d'Appello awards. He publishes articles in the magazines Nuovi Argomenti, Micromega and La Nouvelle Revue Française.