The Red Horse: A Novel

A literary phenomenon in Italy this European best-seller was voted the best Italian novel of the decade in a public survey. Its success has gone way beyond Italy having been translated into Spanish French Japanese and 3 other languages. This epic historical novel about World War II and after written from the authors own personal experiences as an Italian Freedom Fighter is a profoundly moving account of the war those who fought in it on both sides and the effects the war had on families in the authors hometown in northern Italy. On a wider scale it is a faithful witness to the actual events of the war including the historic personages who appear the Russian campaign the Nazi barbarism the Communist gulag the North Italian resistance and beyond to the political life in the two decades after the war. This world filled with powerful personalities drama and clashing armies bathes in the complex light of the truth. A truly great historical novel with its epic scope what makes this a masterpiece is the underlying spiritual dimensions of the protagonist his family and friends which illuminates the ongoing tragedy of the war and its aftermath. In the end it is a story of faith and hope in a world reduced to barbarism and cruelty.