Alternating between Renaissance Italy and Yugoslavia during the time of Tito, this novel tells two tales of love, intrigue, and betrayal. It is the summer of 1995, the war in Bosnia is raging, and the young Bosnian narrator is taking a tour of an Italian Renaissance castle. He soon finds himself caught up in the two tales of passion and intrigue that his Franciscan guide, a refugee like himself, relates. One is the story of Enzo Strecci, a Renaissance poet from Lombardy who has the ill fortune of falling in love with the wife of Francesco Mardi, his host and protector during a time of Hapsburg incursions and espionage. The other is the story of the Franciscan's own ill-fated passion for the local Communist police commander's daughter during Tito's rupture with Stalinism. Between Rimini, Italy, in 1535 and the Croatian island of Rab in 1948, lives and fates become intertwined, history repeats itself, and nostalgia for home proves itself to be bittersweet.
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"An elegant, haunting work...a marvelous hall of mirrors...a first book at its most mystical and tantalizing." —Vue Weekly
"A Castle in Romagna tells two stories, separated by centuries...romantic tragedies...with a good bit of suspense." —TheCompleteReview.com
About the Author
Igor Stiks is the editor of anthologies of new Croatian prose fiction and international short fiction in English. His fiction, literary criticism, and essays have appeared widely in journals and reviews in the former Yugoslavia. Russell Scott Valentino is the translator of Between Exile and Asylum, Materada, and Persuasion and Rhetoric, and the author of Vicissitudes of Genre in the Russian Novel. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Tomislav Kuzmanovic is an MFA student in translation at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a rare treasure of a tale,
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This review is from: A Castle in Romagna (Paperback)
Rebeccasreads highly recommends A CASTLE IN ROMAGNA as a lean & exhilarating tale of two loves, set centuries apart, amid war & peace.
A Bosnian refugee from Tito's war-torn efforts to separate from the USSR, is touring an Italian Renaissance castle when he discovers his Franciscan guide is a fellow ex-patriot who left decades before. As the monk takes the young narrator through the castle & the story of a hopeless love from hundreds of years ago, he also tells of his own tragic love for a Communist policeman's daughter in his homeland. A rare treasure that will wrench your heart & linger in your soul. Outstanding!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tale richly steeped in passion, and the burning desires that drive humans beyond their limits,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Castle in Romagna (Paperback)
Collaboratively translated from Croatian by Tomislav Kuzmanovic and Russell Scott Valentino, A Castle In Romagna by Igor Stiks is a novel that shifts in scene between Renaissance Italy and Tito's Yugoslavia, telling parallel yet intertwined stories of love, deceit, and betrayal. History repeats itself, and the enduring nostalgia for the comforts of home pervade this emotional work of literature. A tale richly steeped in passion, and the burning desires that drive humans beyond their limits.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't miss this unique title!,
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This review is from: A Castle in Romagna (Paperback)
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away....
This could easily have been the introductory sentence for Igor Stiks' A Castle in Romagna, an amazing novel that explores parallel stories from two different time periods. Both stories feature the theme of betrayal, by close companions, from the least expected sources. It begins in Northern Italy in 1995 where three friends go to visit an ancient castle in Romagna. They are there to visit the castle because of the internment there, centuries before, of the poet Enzo Strecci. Before they can explore the ruins, one of them is delayed by a caretaker, who is fascinated that he comes from Bosnia, at the time a scene of frequent violence. As the other two go to explore, the Bosnian tries to politely escape from the talkative caretaker. But soon, the man reveals that he, too, is from Bosnia, and begins telling his own life story as well as the story of Enzo Strecci. His story takes place when the schism occurred between General Tito and Josef Stalin. This led to Yugoslavia trying to become autonomous, with the result that eventually it divided into the complicated political region where Bosnia is located. The caretaker recounts how he barely escaped with his life from those convinced he was a Communist informer. He ends up, scarred and mutilated, in Italy. He describes his own connection with the castle while explaining how Strecci ended up at the same location during the Renaissance, and how it ended in Strecci's execution. It's clear that at first the listener feels like he's missing out on exploring the ruins, but the story revealed soon becomes far more fascinating. The voice of the caretaker is witty and nostalgic, but he's not wasting anyone's time. He reveals only the relevant details in both accounts, which makes the novel move very quickly. The style is unusual but the essential meaning has almost a fairy-tale quality to it. While it's easy to predict what's going to happen, watching it unfold is thought- provoking because of the corelation of both accounts. The concepts of trust, vengeance, and betrayal are all classic story lines, but explored here in a way to remind the reader that often the danger lies closer to us than we may wish to realize. The fate of Strecci may be appropriate, but it's a poignant moment when all his former friends are called to testify against him to save their master. He realizes then the "logic of power." I was fascinated by this book, as it's the first Croatian translation that I've read, and because the author is relatively young. He says a great deal about human nature with very few words, and he points at the blind spots most people have when it comes to reason. Historically, I never really understood the divide between Tito and Stalin and what it meant for the residents of Yugoslavia. This book may be difficult to find but worth the search, as it's a fascinating look at little-known time and place.
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