Rombo
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Seven survivors of the 1976 Friuli earthquake in northeastern Italy, which left hundreds dead and thousands unhoused, speak of their lives after the catastrophe in this poignant, propulsive work of fiction by a noted poet, translator, and novelist.
Il rombo is an Italian term for the subterranean rumble before an earthquake. In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes ripped through the Friuli region in northeastern Italy, causing extensive damage. About a thousand people died under the rubble, tens of thousands were left without shelter, and many ended up leaving their homes forever.
Rombo is a record of this disaster and its aftermath, as told by seven men and women who were children at the time: Anselmo, Mara, Olga, Gigi, Silvia, Lina, and Toni. They speak of portents that preceded the earthquakes and of the complete disorder that followed, the obliteration of all that was familiar and known by heart. Their memories, like the earth, are subject to rifts and abysses. Esther Kinsky splices these indelible, incomplete recollections with exacting descriptions of the alpine region, forgoing a linear narrative for a deftly layered collage that reaches back and forth in time. The brilliantly original book that emerges is both memorial and purgatorial mount.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Named for the Calabrian term for the low rumble that precedes earthquakes, Kinsky's experimental and somewhat rocky outing follows seven Italians from rural Friuli as they recount their lives before and after two devastating earthquakes. Intercut with asides on local plants, birds, and folklore, the resulting pastiche melds the voices of people, nature, and the earth itself into a single chorus. The result is somewhat unfocused, if brilliantly evocative. Despite the multiperspective narration, the speakers are for the most part indistinguishable; without dialogue or identifiable speaking styles, their first-person accounts of growing up in rural poverty (gathering hay in mountain valleys, absentee parents and partners at work abroad) blend together. Kinsky halts the narrative with meandering descriptions of nearby Mount Canin's chalky faces; the soft, variable colors of limestone; and the local white mountain garlic. Readers willing to contain their interest in traditional storytelling—and to weather the occasionally repetitive interlude—will savor Kinsky's poetic and dreamlike scenes: a child lulled to sleep by the sounds of a nearby gravel quarry; young shepherds catching vipers in glass jars. Though it can be tedious, it's hard to deny the beauty of Kinsky's elegantly wrought sketchbook of rural life.
