Fiction
The Seesawers
by Claudio Morandini
Description
Italian Alps, 1980. After what it looked like an endless journey, a young ethnomusicologist ends up right where she wanted to be: the little village of Crottarda. When she was little, she used to go there on holiday with her parents, and she never forgot the bewitching sounds that she heard at night during their stay.
Those sounds were the shouts that shepherds gave each other in between the crests; and now, moved by her academic interest, she wants to study this ancient, mysterious habit.
What she finds out is that the oppressive shadow of the mountain affects the village and the minds of its community, creating a hard hostility towards another village on the opposite, well-brighted slope, as if the conformation of the territory shaped its people’s temper to the bone.
Helped by a local, uncanny girl and a speleologist only equipped with his own forehead lamp, the ethnomusicologist tries to decode the shepherds’ sounds and the eccentric routines of the villagers, surrounded by a cryptic, dreamlike atmosphere – like an evocative and somehow disturbing fable.
But do these shouts really exist and are worthy of her study, or everything is just a trick of her memory? And are these strange people really what they appear to be, or the distance from the rest of the world made them unfitting to any kind of contact with “someone from the outside”?
More Information
Rights Information
Sold to: FRANCE (Anacharsis).
His previous books have been published in UK, France, Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt, Chile and Argentina.
Reviews
“His most sarcastic and clever novel.”
«L’Adige»
“Writing about the way we deal with everything that is different and unusual, The Seesawers proves once again that Morandini is one of the most interesting authors of our time.”
«La Lettura - Corriere della Sera»
“An atmosphere of instability, where nothing is certain anymore. A story that resonates deeply with our current times.”
«La Stampa»
“Some novels are something else, and this is one of those.”
«Critica Letteraria»
“A novel so peculiar and unique that’s it’s hard to describe it.”
«Montagne 360»
“Nobody can talk about this kind of mountain people - harsh, wary and hostile - better than Claudio Morandini.”
«Zest»
“An enchanting prose on a dark and hidden world.”
«DoppioZero»
Author Biography
A high school teacher, Claudio Morandini lives in Aosta.
He wrote radio comedies, theatre monologues and several novels.
His book "A gran giornate" won the “Città di Trebisacce” Literary Prize in 2013.
His short story "Dita fredde" is included in "Santi – Lives of Modern Saints" (Black Arrow Press, Baltimora, 2007).
"Neve, cane, piede" has been a real literary phenomenon: a top 5 best-seller, it won the Procida-Elsa Morante-Isola di Arturo prize in 2016 and it has been sold to UK, France, Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt, Chile and Argentina. Film rights have been optioned.
In August 2018, Salani published his first children’s book "Le maschere di Pocacosa", and in June 2019 his novel "Gli oscillanti" has been published by Bompiani.
Otago Literary Agency
Founded in 2010, Otago is a literary agency based in Bologna, Italy. We represent authors in Italy and abroad, foreign publishers and literary agencies in the Italian market, and we manage the foreign rights of Italian publishing houses. We are proud to be one of the founding members of ADALI, the first Association of Italian literary agents.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Bompiani
- Publication Date June 2019
- Orginal LanguageItalian
- ISBN/Identifier 9788845295515
- Publication Country or regionItaly
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 17 EUR
- Pages256
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleGli oscillanti
- Copyright Year2019
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