Name: Not all Bastards are from Vienna
Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Author: Andrea Molesini

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

Andrea Molesini's exquisite debut novel, winner of the prestigious Campiello Prize, portrays the depths of heroism and horror within a Northern Italian village toward the end of the Great War. While a family's villa is requisitioned by enemy troops, they are forced to intimately confront war's injustice as their involvement with its sinister underpinnings grows more and more complex.

In the autumn of 1917, Refrontolo, a small community north of Venice, is invaded by Austrian soldiers as the Italian army is pushed to the Piave river. The Spada family owns the largest estate in the area, where orphaned seventeen-year-old Paolo lives with his eccentric grandparents, headstrong aunt, and a loyal staff. With the battlefront nearby, the Spada home become a bastion of resistance, both clashing and cooperating with the military members imposing on their household. When Paolo is recruited to help with a covert operation, his life is put in irrevocable jeopardy. As he bears witness to violence and hostility between enemies, he grows to understand the value of courage, dignity, family bonds, and patriotism during wartime.

Membership Advantages

Reviews
"Beyond the Book" articles
Free books to read and review (US only)
Find books by time period, setting & theme
Read-alike suggestions by book and author
Book club discussions
and much more!
Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
More about membership!

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. This is 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

"Combining a comedic touch and vivid characterizations with harrowing depictions of wartime violence, Molesino's first novel was awarded Italy's Campiello Prize." - Booklist

"[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

"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)

"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)

"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)

"... 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)

This information about Not all Bastards are from Vienna was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Mla08080

Italian spirit
This Italian award winning novel begins in 1917 as the Austrian army takes over the Villa Spada in Refrontolo, Italy, home to an aristocratic family—two grandparents; aunt Maria; 17-year-old orphaned grandson Paolo—and their servants. The story is told through the eyes of Paolo, whose journey to manhood, including his involvement in the resistance movement and his initiation into love , carry the narrative. The atrocities of war are juxtaposed with the humor of the characters, especially that of the grandpa Gugliemo, who shares his insights and sleeping quarters with our narrator. As the enemy troops search for valuables, it is grandpa who explains, ‘War and loot are the only faithful married couple. "

Andrea Molsini creates a handful of memorable characters here that influence Paolo and help to provide insights about this time period just before the end to World War I, including Renaldo, who though a servant for the family, works for the Italian secret forces, and Aunt Maria, the strong caretaker of the family estate. "Aunt Maria –Donna Maria to outsiders –was fine-looking, the victim of a haughty manner which both fascinated men and kept them at a distance. She was courted with circumspection by even the boldest and most passionate spirits: not a light cross to bear."

As mentioned in back notes, Molesini used the actual diaries of Maria Spada as a resource for novel. The Villa Spada acted as a microcosm of the the war, giving insights to the lives of those occupied countries.
Some memorable passages are quoted below to provide a sense of the writing:

"Giulia was chaos personified, an irresistible force. Grandpa had described her as the crupper of a horse, the shudder it gives, the lash of its tail on a horsefly. But she was far, far more than that: she was beautiful, she was ablaze. She regarded me with the hauteur of one who, knowing herself desired, strives not to reproach the unrequited lover."

"The soldiers took no notice of us, and still less did the officers, who whiled away their time smoking, playing cards and drinking an insipid brandy that according to Grandpa tasted of dry dung, iron and rotting leather, ‘the same taste as war’."

"Inside the house, the odour of poverty was notable for its absence. And that was an odour that I knew all too well. In Venice, I’d smelt it in homes I’d entered, on occasion, with a servant visiting her family. It had something to do with the odour of ashes, chickpea soup, and inadequately dried clothing."

Membership Advantages