M: Son of the Century
A Novel
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
The massive international bestseller—an epic historical novel that chronicles the birth and rise of fascism in Italy, witnessed through the eyes of its founder, the terrifyingly charismatic figure who would become one of the most notorious dictators of the twentieth century, Benito Mussolini.
It is 1919, and the Great War that has ravaged Europe is over. In Italy, the people are exhausted. Tired of the political class. Tired of vague promises, inept moderates, and the agonizing machinations of a democracy that has failed ordinary citizens.
While elite leaders have sat idly by, achieving nothing, one outsider—the director of a small opposition newspaper and a tireless political agitator—is electrifying the masses, promising hope for a demoralized nation hungry for change.
A former socialist leader ousted by his own party, he is a drifter who knows what it is to feel lost. His voice speaks for the misfits and the outcasts; he is a protector of those who are forgotten.
He is Benito Mussolini. And soon Italy—and the world—will be forever remade.
In M: Son of the Century, Antonio Scurati tells the story of fascism from within the mind of its founder, the man known to his followers as Il Duce. Steeped in historical detail and interspersed with period documents and sources, this masterful saga explores the seductive power of nationalism and idolatry, revealing how authoritarianism took hold and a nation bent to the will of one ruthless strongman. Provocative and resonant, M is a chilling reminder that the past is never gone, and that it holds urgent lessons for us today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The expansive first installment of Scurati's Strega Prize–winning tetralogy, his English-language debut, covers the rise of Benito Mussolini in the aftermath of WWI. In 1919, a rally of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento signals fascism's rise. With the war ended, Italy churns in turmoil as the troops, described by Scurati's omniscient narrator as "forty thousand loose cannons," return home. (A dramatis personae catalogues over 70 principal characters.) Sweeping statements by Mussolini ("The age of mass politics has begun") combine with a range of primary sources, including newspapers and protesters' graffiti. Scurati captures Italy's past by blurring fiction's boundary with history, such as with chapters narrated by Mussolini himself ("I am the misfit par excellence," he avows). The historical sweep takes in fascist, socialist, and liberal ideologies competing for Italy's future, and the author captivates with portrayals of various characters' poignant struggles, such as the wealthy and obstinate real-life socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, who was abducted and murdered by Fascists on June 10, 1924. The magisterial prose, adeptly translated by Appel, takes a bold look into the abyss, as readers will come to know "the Duce of fascism" and to understand "the Mussolini cyclone." Scurati's ambivalent portrait of a powerful fascist is sure to spark much debate.
