{"product_id":"the-stronghold-9781681377148","title":"The Stronghold","description":"\u003cb\u003eA glory-starved soldier spends his life awaiting an absent, long-expected enemy in this influential Italian classic of existentialism, now newly translated and with its originally intended title restored.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the start of Dino Buzzati's \u003ci\u003eThe Stronghold\u003c\/i\u003e, newly commissioned officer Giovanni Drogo has just received his first posting: the remote Fortezza Bastiani. North of this stronghold are impassable mountains; to the south, a great desert; and somewhere out there is the enemy, whose attack is imminent. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is the enemy that Lieutenant Drogo has been sent to draw out of his lair, to defeat once and for all, returning home in triumph. And yet time passes, and where is the enemy? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs the soldiers in the fortress await the foretold day of reckoning, they succumb to inertia, and though death occurs, it is not from bravery. Decades pass. A lifetime passes. Drogo, however, still has his lonely vigil to keep. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBuzzati is one of the great Italian writers of the twentieth century, renowned for his fantastical imagination and for a touch that is as lyrical as it is light. \u003ci\u003eThe Stronghold\u003c\/i\u003e, previously translated as \u003ci\u003eThe Tartar Steppe\u003c\/i\u003e, is his most celebrated work, a book that has been read as a veiled attack on Mussolini's fascist militarism, a prophetic allegory of the Cold War, and an existentialist fable. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLawrence Venuti's new translation reverts to the title that Buzzati originally intended to give his book, and seeks to bring out both the human and the historical dimensions of a story of proven power and poignancy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDino Buzzati \u003c\/b\u003e(1906-1972) was an Italian journalist, artist, and author. A gifted artist as well as writer, Buzzati was the author of five novels, numerous short stories and poems, a children's book, and a comic book, \u003ci\u003ePoem Strip \u003c\/i\u003e(published by NYRB Classics). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLawrence Venuti\u003c\/b\u003e is a leading translation scholar, editor, and translator from Italian, French, and Catalan. His translations have won awards from the PEN American Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50613173616914,"sku":"9781681377148","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ba678c3d-dabf-4d8e-bde8-c73c74c08194.jpg?v=1732389079","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-stronghold-9781681377148","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}