Fists - Softcover

Grossi, Pietro

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906548072 ISBN 13: 9781906548070

Publisher: Pushkin Pr Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

Three stories present three portraits of young men learning the realities of adult life. Boxing takes us into the world of gyms, a world of bodies and nerves stretched to the limit, of sacrifice and challenge. Two young men confront each other in the fight of their lives: one of them is well-to-do, a model student whose his skills have never been put to the test; the other, although poor and deaf, is stubborn, determined, and wins fights easily. Now they face the ultimate test—the encounter on which not only their present but also their future depends. Horses presents the wide open spaces of the countryside. Here, two brothers, both given horses by their father, confront each other sensing that two different destinies are opening up for them. The Monkey is about the fragility of identity, the desire to escape it and disappear. When Nico discovers that his boyhood friend Piero has made the sudden, shocking decision to become a monkey, he is led to question the basis on which he has lived his own life.

About this title

About the Author

Fists is Pietro Grossi's second book for which he won the Premio Cocito Monta d’Alba prize. Howard Curtis is a recipient of the John Florio Italian Translation Prize of the Translators’ Association of Great Britain and has been short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Review

"The greatest addition to Italian literature for a very long time."  —Il Domenicale

"His passion for Hemingway, Faulkner and Philip Roth can be seen in this simple, precise and intense writing."  —Il Giornale

"A perfect book."  —Il Sole 24 Ore

"Pietro Grossi has written three exemplary tales—three stories that you wished you had written yourself."  —La Repubblica

"'Boxing' is as good a contemporary short story as I have read in years. . . . There is more power and pathos in this short piece of spare, timeless prose than in most densely-written novels. . . . All three tales are artful but seemingly effortless, a quality shared by Howard Curtis's translation, which feels elegantly natural."  —Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushkin Pr Ltd
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1906548072
• ISBN 13: 9781906548070
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 157