The history of the mountain (Veneto) region of northern Italy near the Austrian border in the shadow of WWI takes the form,...

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THE STORY OF T…NLE

The history of the mountain (Veneto) region of northern Italy near the Austrian border in the shadow of WWI takes the form, in this 1978 novel, of a gentle and generally unsentimental portrayal of a wise Tolstoyan villager, the eponymous T…nle Bintarn. He's an itinerant peddler, whose journeys away from his endangered homeland foreshadow its virtual annihilation when war arrives. The story is very slight, but T…nle has an unassuming gravity and dignity that recall Hemingway's embattled ""Old Man"" (and the Sea) Santiago, and Italian novelist Stem's spare account of his disenfranchisement effectively memorializes a little-known and ill-remembered comer of Europe and its unfortunate people.

Pub Date: June 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Marlboro/Northwestern Univ.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1998

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