After Hannibal [Paperback]

Unsworth Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1998

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Sacred Hunger, "a vivid, sinuous, profound, and entirely beguiling venture."--Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times. Set in the beautiful landscape and rich history of Umbria, Italy, Booker Prize-winning author Barry Unsworth has written a witty and illuminating work of contemporary manners and morals. The region where Hannibal defeated the Romans is now prey to a different type of invasion: outsiders buying villas with innocent and not so innocent dreams. Among those clustered along one hillside road are the Greens, a retired American couple seeking serenity; the Chapmans, whose dispute over a wall escalates into a feud of operatic proportions; and Fabio and Arturo, a gay couple who, searching for peace and self-sufficiency, find treachery instead. Add to this mix a wily and corrupt British "building expert," and a lawyer who practices subterfuge and plans his client's actions like military strategy, and you have a sharp, entertaining, and satisfyingly bittersweet work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Barry Unsworth, who lives in Umbria, has chosen to set his latest novel, After Hannibal, among the wandering lanes and ancient fields he knows well. His cast of characters is a diverse bunch that includes a homosexual couple named Fabio and Arturo; a mentally unstable German named Ritter; the Greens, an American couple; the morose Italian historian Monti; and the Chapmans, a dull British couple at war with a local family, the Checchettis, over maintenance of a wall that fronts the country lane they both share. Unsworth uses geographical propinquity to link them all together and then throws in another common bond as well: the crafty lawyer Mancini, whom almost all have cause to consult at one time or another during the course of the novel.

Unsworth's darkly comic novel of greed, perfidy, and deceit occupies a landscape all too familiar with such things; Umbria is, after all, the place where Carthaginian invaders under Hannibal ambushed and slaughtered an entire Roman legion. Tactics have changed since the days of Hannibal, but the Umbria of After Hannibal is still a treacherous locale. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The life of a literary expatriate often is far from rosy, even in Umbria. Unsworth has set his latest novel (his twelfth) in the rural Italian region where he also resides. In this vibrant book, three sets of expatriates of sorts become ensnared unsuspectingly by danger in the midst of rustic beauty. A retired American couple building a dream house risk losing their savings to a devious "buildings expert." A British financier and his wife become embroiled in a peasant blood feud. Two gay lovers looking for autonomy in the countryside suffer deceit and betrayal. All are manipulated by the devious lawyer Mancini. Although an interesting addition to the author's oeuvre, this work is lighter in tone and substance than his other works, e.g., Morality Play (1995). One wonders whether Unsworth is projecting his own expatriate frustrations on his characters and perhaps longs for the bland consistency of England. Ted Leventhal --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. (May 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393317706
• ISBN-13: 978-0393317701
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise and Witty, August 10, 2000

By 

Lev Raphael - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Hannibal (Hardcover)

Can the history of a region shape the lives of those who settle there? Barry Unsworth, winner of the Booker Prize for his novel SACRED HUNGER, suggests that may be so in his hypnotic and gorgeously written new novel about fantasy, deceit and betrayal.

Set in "Golden" Umbria, a region made famous by painters like Raphael and Peruggino, AFTER HANNIBAL explores a brief spell of time for English, Italian, German, and American neighbors living along a dusty rural road. They all have their dreams, some elevated, some vicious, and reality crushes each of them in one way or another--or sets them free in unexpected ways.

But that's not surprising, because they live in a dramatic, blood-soaked landscape, however dreamy and idyllic it may appear, and however filled it may be with cities that are "treasure-houses of art and history." Hannibal destroyed a Roman army there, and in the Renaissance, noble families jockeyed for power, defying each other and the Papacy in blood. The region's history is "a record of crime."

All this background is ironically supplied by an Italian history professor who himself longs "to be detached from history, rescued"--but of course, that's not possible for him or his neighbors who are bound together in surprising ways.

Though the author's couple from Michigan sounds more British than American, it's an easily forgiven lapse. AFTER HANNIBAL is wise and witty, infused with the warmth of a dazzling landscape, and tempered by a sad, deep knowledge of the human penchant for self-deception and self- destruction. It's a deeply moving book much like one of the tiny, ancient Umbrian towns the author describes: "undemonstrative, unclamorous--it makes no very loud or evident claim on your attention. It exists in its own right, in its venerable and richly layered past and harmonious present."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, readable but not Unsworths best., April 23, 2001

By 

Donal A. O'Neill - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Hannibal (Paperback)

Though entertaining - and deadly realistic in its portrayal of human weakness at its most mean - this is not the best of Mr.Unsworth's fiction. Its portrayal of the lives and struggles of isolated expatriates in Tuscany, and of their exploitation by an avaricious attorney, has much of the comic about it, and the observations are never less than sharply ironic and amusing, but the underlying theme is of tragedy, of small lives blighted by failures of spirit and generosity. There is no redeeming feature in this story of gloom and petty misery and the larger themes that dominate much of Mr.Unsworth's other fiction are missing here. It is a capable and readable work - but by the time one is half-way through one longs for something more. This said however, Mr.Unsworth in even his lesser work - the category this undoubtedly falls into - is still a better writer than many who are higher acclaimed and the aficionado of his work should not give this a miss.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful look at the human condition, July 26, 2008

By 

robbieandrose (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Hannibal (Paperback)

and 'Ugly Englishman' as opposed to Americans who are unusually kind and trusting in this book about several couples trying to work through the good offices of an Italian lawyer trying to help them with problems caused by greedy contractors, crazy neighbors etc.. I found all the little stories interesting except for the one about the professor Monti where Unsworth included maybe a little too much about local history for my patience. All in all an interesting book that also provides a cautionary tale for rich foreigners who are keen on Italian real estate.