Natural Disorder of Things [Hardcover]

Andrea Canobbio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2008

Claudio Fratta is a garden designer; a naturally solitary man, he is nonetheless a playful companion to his nephews. He is at the same time obsessed with the determination to exact vengeance on the loan shark who bankrupted his father and with the pursuit of an enigmatic, alluring woman, one of his clients. Set in an Italian landscape in part unchanged, yet deeply marked by the twentieth century, The Natural Disorder of Things is peopled with an authentic cast of contemporary Italy: wealthy dilettantes, ex-convicts, right-wing secessionists, left-wing conspiracy theorists, and immigrant Moroccan, Chinese, and Sikh workers. Andrea Canobbio's masterful and fluid prose captures not only the character of Claudio - who cannot stop mulling over his past , including the death by drugs of his brother - but the central theme of the book: that his history is a burden, a legacy of guilt, silence, and misunderstanding. Professionally, Claudio imposes order on the landscape, but he cannot lay to rest the tragic past for himself and those he loved

Editorial Reviews

Review

Each time the story cuts the surface, there is something beneath it that warms you and makes you cry. Here is a novel we can boast about overseas - La Repubblica The novel's language, elegance and style are a joy - Bucher

About the Author

Andrea Canobbio was born in Turin. A senior editor at the publishing house Einaudi, he is the author of the novels Vasi Cinesi (1989), Traslochi (1992), Padri di padri (1997), and Indivisibili (2000). This is his first book to appear in English translation in the UK.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Maclehose Press (January 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847242502
• ISBN-13: 978-1847242501
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,378,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a pleasant but not a memorable read, October 28, 2006

By 

Robert J. Piro (Houston, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Natural Disorder of Things: A Novel (Hardcover)

It seems that modern Italian literature has not kept pace with other European countries----even eastern European writers are being translated and published here. I had hoped that Andrea Cobbio might be about to change that trend. I started the book with high hopes but its meandering story line, confusing and not quite developed characters, and unsatisfacory ending were a disappointment. It is about a fat and apparantly unattractive landscape architect's attraction to a very strange and shadowy widow of a patrician patriarch. Motivtation is murky and it just never pulls together. I was never tempted to abandon it because it was a pleasant though not very rewarding read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beneath the surface..., July 22, 2008

By 

R. S. Chaney "deBruno" (Kentucky, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Natural Disorder of Things: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I hope more of Canobbio's work will be translated to english. It is a darkly entertaining and engrossing read. The author does an excellent job of showing the chaotic inner depths of "Claudio" a garden designer living a seemingly ordinary life.

3.0 out of 5 stars Order and Disorder in Italy, November 24, 2011

By 

James W. Fonseca (Zanesville, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Natural Disorder of Things: A Novel (Paperback)

The Natural Disorder of Things is about an Italian garden designer. He gets in over his head when he becomes romantically involved with an upper-class woman who is a widow connected to a strange aristocratic family with a lot of mysterious goings-on. There is a bit of a mystery involving the gardener witnessing a murder where someone is deliberately run down in the rain in a mall parking lot. Our garden designer is much more successful at imposing order upon the landscape than he is at putting his own life in order. The interplay of modern vs. classical going on in his life is reflected in his garden designs. The book, translated from the Italian, has a lot of local color of modern (1990's) suburban and rural Italy.