Praise for NOT ALL BASTARDS ARE FROM VIENNA
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Wonderfully aliveoften terribly soas a wartime adventure and story of youth arriving at manhood." New York Times Book Review
"An excellent war novel, as well as a powerful depiction of a family's strength and mankind's justification for war's barbarity, movingly told and full of vivid imagery." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[An] impressively controlled, gently paced, ultimately piercing debut . . . this unusual novel, reflecting the war in microcosm, captures a turning point in the fates of empires." Kirkus Reviews
"In Not All Bastards Are From Vienna, war is a demon that sweeps away everything . . . It is one of most successful characters in this compelling and enigmatic work, which leaves the reader deeply satisfied." L’Unità (Italy)
"Molesini's words are vital and transcend the rhetoric of memory . . . Behind this skillful work lies a collective vision, one that speaks for individuals no longer with us." La Repubblica (Italy)
"In Not All Bastards Are from Vienna, characters are streaked by vivid language; with a sure hand, Molesini plumbs the depths of his characters' psychologies." Corriere Della Sera (Italy)
"Molesini's secret? The virtuosity to unite a tale of Eros and death with a rigorous character study. Not All Bastards Are from Vienna is an accomplishment." Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy)
"With precise language and steeped in an almost photographic realism, [Molesini] describes tragic and painful events with the strength and power of a true writer . . . [the] drumming and dynamic prose in the folds of his expressive style is steeped in dignity, altruism and heroism." Racconto Postmoderno (Italy)
"A great novel, one to read and reread for its abundance of broad and deep reflections." Kult Underground (Italy)
"Wonderful." La Stampa (Italy)
"With formidable talent, Molesini gradually reveals a universe of love and hate, patriotism and everyday heroism." Le Monde (France)
"A thunderbolt of a debut novel . . . a vast fresco, both family chronicle and story of the Great War . . . evoked with finesse and erudition. L’Express (France)
"Masterful." Page de Libraires (France)
"Take Hemingway's masterpiece A Farewell to Arms and Erich Maria Remarque’s classic All Quiet on the Western Front, and cross these two war depictions with the portrait of Italian aristocracy in Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel The Leopard. . . . [Not all Bastards are from Vienna] is a powerful and effective blend of Bildungsroman, armchair travel, historical document, and war drama, with touches of a thriller." Kultur (Denmark)
"Full of lessons for the man of today and tomorrow . . . [with] characters of flesh and blood, people with wit and courage . . . Molesini traces with a steady hand this historical map, this atlas of feelings and emotions . . . [it’s a] novel of boundless beauty and tenderness, but also the overwhelming sadness and drama of war in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. A story, too, about almost unsung heroes, those who forged the dream of a continent." ABC Spain
"Molesini gives all his grace to the story . . . [with] great expressive power." El Pais (Spain)
"A beautiful, sensual and visionary novel." Juan Marsé, winner of the Cervantes Prize
2015-11-05
War and resistance, sexual awakening and shell shock, sacrifice and survival color the extreme coming-of-age of an Italian teenager experiencing the last year of World War I among the gentry in a small country town. Humor overlays tragedy in Molesini's impressively controlled, gently paced, ultimately piercing debut. The setting is the Villa Spada in Refrontolo, Italy, home to an aristocratic family—two grandparents; aunt Maria; 17-year-old orphaned grandson Paolo—and their servants. It's 1917 and, with occupying German troops billeted in the town, atrocities have been committed: women have been raped; valuables looted. While the family attempts to maintain its role in the community, Paolo assists its steward, Renato, a member of military intelligence, in running missions, including rescuing a downed British pilot. Times are hard, food is short, and life is perilous, yet Molesini's portrait of the community is delivered with a light, often wry touch. Grandma's enemas are a weekly ritual and her enema bags a good place to hide valuables. The villa's shutters and washing line are used to send coded messages. And Paolo's adventures with Renato are matched, for thrills, by his sexual relationship with Giulia, a beautiful but unpredictable older woman. But tragedy gradually takes the upper hand. The German troops are replaced by Austro-Hungarians who, as the 1918 offensive begins, suffer devastating losses; and Paolo, assisting with the wounded and on a steep learning curve, eventually plays his own part in the historic proceedings. While Molesini can't refrain from dropping plangent hints about the world that awaits after this war is over, it's the tragic impact on the Spada family that the reader will remember. Drawn in part from the true-life diaries of Maria Spada, this unusual novel, reflecting the war in microcosm, captures a turning point in the fates of empires.