TARTAR STEPPE (Canons)

Idealistic young officer Giovanni Drogo is full of determination to serve his country well. But when he arrives at a bleak border station in the Tartar desert where he is to take a short assignment at Fort Bastiani he finds the castle manned by veteran soldiers who have grown old without seeing a trace of the enemy. As his length of service stretches from months into years he continues to wait patiently for the enemy to advance across the desert for one great and glorious battle . . . Written in 1938 as the world waited for war and internationally acclaimed since its publication The Tartar Steppe is a provocative and frightening tale of hope longing and the terrible sorcery of dreams and desires. Review A strange and haunting novel an eccentric classic -- J.M. COETZEEIt is not often that a masterpiece falls into ones hands. ButThe Tartar Steppe is undoubtedly a masterpiece a sublime book and Muzzati a master of the written word ―Sunday TimesThere are names that the coming generations will not resign themselves to forget. Surely one of them is that of Dino Buzzati -- JORGE LUIS BORGESA beautiful masterly novel that shimmers like a mirage bringing into sharp focus the rise and fall of our ambitions and the pitiless erosion of time. It is the story of one Giovanni Drogo - yet how many of us will be stricken to recognise something of ourselves in him? -- YANN MARTELThe Tartar Steppe is a nightmare a comedy of errors a beautiful and anguished fable a call to resistance against folly the inspired assurance that one last act may justify our lifelong struggle to remain human -- ALBERTO MANGUEL Book Description Undoubtedly a masterpiece a sublime book Sunday TimesA dark and beautiful tale full of pain and longing introduced by Tim Parks About the Author Dino Buzzati was born in Italy in 1906. After receiving a law degree from the University of Milan he worked as a reporter and later as special correspondent and editor for theCorriere della Sera. His literary career began in 1933 with the publication ofBarnabas of the Mountains andThe Secret of the Old Forest; however it was not until he wroteThe Tartar Steppe in 1940 andThe Seven Messengers in 1942 that he received proper recognition in the mainstream of contemporary European literature. His works have been translated into many languages. Buzzati died in Milan in 1972.