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Italian Life

£10.99

There is no word for whistle-blower in Italian, though you can absolutely chiudere un’occhio (turn a blind eye). In all areas of public life – community, education, employment – your connections are everything. ‘Italian Life’ is a particular reckoning with a beloved adopted country. It takes place in a university in the north. Valeria, a talented young woman from hot, dusty Basilicata, enrols together with thousands of others for a degree course that could take anything between three and ten years to complete, given the vagaries of the system. She has sacrificed a great deal to get here. However, as both Valeria and her rich supporting cast of students and professors will soon discover, there are dark and capricious forces at the institution’s heart.

In stock

SKU: 9781529112580 Category: Tags: ,

Description

‘Parks…offers detailed cultural observation, witty yet eagle-eyed, of what makes Italians so Italian’ The Times

How does Italy really work?

When Valeria travels from hot, dusty Basilicata to begin her studies in a northern university town, she has little idea of the kind of education she will find there. Italian Life is her story, and that of the students and professors around her: a story of power and corruption, influence and exclusion, and the workings of a society where your connections are everything.

Written with flair and insight, Italian Life joins Tim Parks’ bestselling books about his beloved and paradoxical adopted country. It is a gripping, entertaining, behind-the-scenes account of how Italy actually happens, and the ways it can surprise those who know it inside out.

‘A satisfyingly truthful, entertaining and provocative comedy’ Daily Telegraph

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.255 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 2.2 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

352

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

945.093 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K