LOVE FOR LIVRES

The Garden of the Finzi-Contini

Giorgio Bassani

Publisher :Ballantine Books

Key Emotion Indicator
6/10

The novel opens with a brief prologue set in 1957 in which the narrator, an Italian Jew, describes a visit to the Ferrara cemetery where the Finzi-Contini family mausoleum stands, empty in all but two slots: a young child, Guido, who died of illness before the narrator was born and Alberto, the son of the Finzi-Continis and a friend of the narrator's, who died of lymphogranulomatosis (Hodgkin's disease) before the mass deportation that sent the remainder of the family to a concentration camp in Germany. At this point, the narrator reveals that none of the Finzi-Continis survived. From this beginning, the narrator will make us discover the atmosphere of the time and his dreams of love.