Customer Reviews

The Edge of the Horizon

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This book is one of the more enigmatic of Tabucchi's. Spino, who works for a morgue, is a man unwilling to make a commitment to marriage while enjoying a long-term relationship, a man unwilling to finish his medical degree and "make something of himself". On evening, a young unidentified body "Carlo Nobodi" is brought to the morgue - the victim of a police raid / shootout. Spino becomes obsessed with identifying the person and traces Carlo back to his school days without truly succeeding at putting a person or family behind the name.

The story is part detective story - tracing an identity through a priest that befriended Carlo, through the jacket he wore that had been given to his father (uncle?), through the small boarding school in which Carlo resided, and through Spino's connections in the seamy underside of the port. Memory, dreams, death and commitment all wind their way through the plot.

This is another fine book by Tabucchi which forces one to consider connections, life, death and identity. I recommend it.

Tabucchi's works are settled on the margins that are not a limit, but instead carry within possibilities, they allow characters, events and situations to turn into their opposites in accordance to the dim and creative field of his fantasy. During an ingenuous first reading, his books are infinitely enjoyable, but yet much more joyful for those who accept sharing Tabucchi's position on the margins of literature and philosophy in a fruitful and co-creative dialogue with the author.

Tabucchi's works are settled on the margins that are not a limit, but instead carry within possibilities, they allow characters, events and situations to turn into their opposites in accordance to the dim and creative field of his fantasy. During an ingenuous first reading, his books are infinitely enjoyable, but yet much more joyful for those who accept sdharing Tabucchi's position on the margins of literature and philosophy in a fruitful and co-creative dialogue with the author.