Without Blood [Import] [Hardcover]

ALESSANDRO BARICCO (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: CANONGATE BOOKS LTD (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841954853
• ISBN-13: 978-1841954851
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,662,611 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing but powerful, May 22, 2005

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Blood (Hardcover)

This novel is disappointing beside Baricco's Silk and Ocean Sea but is still well worth a read. The clarity and "rightness" of his prose continues to create very enjoyable reading.

The first half of the book sets the stage - a political murder of father and brother experienced by a young girl hiding under the floor. The second half is the meeting of the now grown woman with the one surviving murderer. What sets Baricco's handling of the plot apart from many authors is the surprising depth in his understanding of the psychological effect on his particular character. Her behavior is unexpected yet perfectly congruent with her personality. This raises the book from polemic into a fascinating study of human nature. It is well worth the short time it takes to read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a story of most powerful human feelings, December 28, 2006

By 

Aleksandra Nita-Lazar (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Blood (Hardcover)

This time Alessandro Baricco decided to tackle a situation of real trauma, getting for a while out of his world of towns full of extraordinary characters and strange events.
"Without Blood" is another compact work, consisting of two parts, separated by time.

In the first part, a group of men tracks down and kills someone, who during the recent war was on the other side of the barricade. Unfortunately, he has two small children and they get involved - a boy gets killed, but a girl is spared and survives.

In the second part, the girl, now an old woman, has her turn to track down all the murderers of her father and brother and kill them. After years of hiding, careful planning and concealing her emotions, she does what she feels must be done. On the beautiful summer day she arrives at the lottery kiosk and meets the last of the group - the man, who secretly spared her life...

Although both parts of the book are in sharp contrast (bloody events at the remote farm versus a sunny day in the town full of people), they are both about revenge, about justice and about personal pain. Written in the characteristic Baricco style, clear and poetic, this is another of his brilliant mini-novels. It might not be equal to "Silk", but it is still a masterpiece.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good little fable, November 6, 2004

By 

M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Blood (Hardcover)

This is a powerful fable of the personal toll war takes on individual lives. Baricco deftly explores how both sides of a conflict feel that what they are doing is right and for an ultimate higher good. The slight volume also examines how the personal aspect of war does not disappear once the war ends. In this tale, it lingers on in dangerous rage and ultimately futile schemes of revenge that beget more violence.