'Baricco has written an Iliad for his time, a wonderful, gripping take on a story that has haunted our culture since it was first told.' The Times
Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin in 1958. He is the author of six novels, including Silk and Without Blood, four of which have been translated into English. Ann Goldstein has translated works by, among others, authors Roberto Calasso, Alessandro Baricco, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Aldo Buzzi. She has been the recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award.
* You won't, and can't put it down Observer * 'A swift, stylish, summer-reading version of the great epic.' San Francisco Chronicle * 'A taut and mesmerizing tale.' Seattle Times * 'Baricco creates a persuasive atmosphere of character-driven impending doom ... Both celebration and condemnation of war, this Iliad manages to speak to yet another generation that needs desperately to hear its message.' Kirkus Reviews
* You won't, and can't put it down Observer * 'A swift, stylish, summer-reading version of the great epic.' San Francisco Chronicle * 'A taut and mesmerizing tale.' Seattle Times * 'Baricco creates a persuasive atmosphere of character-driven impending doom ... Both celebration and condemnation of war, this Iliad manages to speak to yet another generation that needs desperately to hear its message.' Kirkus Reviews
Inspired to stage a public reading of The Iliad, Baricco (Silk) soon felt compelled to "intervene" in the original text to make it more palatable for a modern audience. The result, now published as a novella, makes for a shorter but still powerful tale of the siege of Troy by the Achaeans. Working from a prose translation by Maria Grazia Ciani, Baricco streamlined scenes and removed the gods from the narrative. His most significant change was allowing some of the characters to tell the story themselves in place of a single external narrator. Though this can be awkward-as when a woman refers to herself as a beauty or when a character tells about something he or she couldn't have witnessed-it does succeed in personalizing an epic tale. Unfortunately, these many voices sound alike, so Baricco missed an opportunity to truly reimagine The Iliad; the passages he's added-which are noted in italics-are some of the most powerful moments in this book and make the reader wish he'd been a little less reverent with Homer's masterpiece. Still, this is a gripping story made very accessible to a wider audience. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.-Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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