Sergio Saviane (1923–2001)

This book exemplifies the difference between a journalist and a writer. It describes what lies beneath the surface of a tranquil provincial town: the usual base emotions - mostly greed, triggering a chain of "inevitable" murders to keep the culprit of the original one from being discovered. But most of all this book constitutes the author's attempt to get his own back and set the record straight, after being condemned for slander following a piece of investigative journalism on the murders.

The book can be seen as consisting of two parts: the first is the autobiographic account of the events as lived and viewed by the journalist, who happened to learn about them as a frequent holiday maker in the (apparently) tranquil town of Alleghe; the second is the authors reconstruction of how the murderers felt and how events developed, although much of it is speculative. The second half was for me the less convincing, as it just does not have the literary quality to make it work. The first part reads much better as a factual account of the author's first hand experience of the town and the events, seasoned with a good dose of reflections on provincial life.

Not sorry I read it as I already had a gifted copy, but not sure it is worth buying.
… (mer)