TRISTANO DIES by Antonio Tabucchi

                                         

                                        5.5

Publication Date: September 29, 2015

Publisher: Steerforth Press

Pages: 160

Copy: Publisher

Summary:

It is a sultry August at the very end of the twentieth century, and Tristano is dying. A hero of the Italian Resistance, Tristano has called a writer to his bedside to listen to his life story, though, really, “you don’t tell a life…you live a life, and while you’re living it, it’s already lost, has slipped away.” Tristano Dies, one of Antonio Tabucchi’s major novels, is a vibrant consideration of love, war, devotion, betrayal, and the instability of the past, of storytelling, and what it means to be a hero.

My view;

This is my first novel by Antonio Tabucchi.

First, I'd like to mention a touching story at the onset of this novel, about elephants...yes...elephants. Antonio Tabucchi worked magic introducing them along with his character Tristano. Although they are not an integral part of this beautiful novel, Tristano shares their ritual. This being a Galley, I will wait until the novel is published to share said ritual.
As the novel begins, Tristano's life is coming to it's end, one last request remains.  Our protagonist summons an author he keeps in high esteem, hired to transcribe his long life by proxy.
Tristano remembers his youth, wearing the enemy's uniform, Greece, Daphne, his love, life... it's simplicity it's challenges. Morphine for his pain, color his memories.  Each memory carries subtle details, nuances unknown to the hired author, who continues to write what he hears, the soul of these words belonging to Tristano alone, not ever to be found within the finished memoir.
Such a beautiful novel for sure, to be read when one has time to reflect on life.

I received this galley from Archipelago and NetGalley in return for an honest review.