The Skin (New York Review Books Classics)

This was my first experience of Malaparte, and at first his magical realism was a shock to the system. As it began to dawn on me that some of the writing is an artefact of imagination, I was left with the still more disturbing idea that if not all of the work was imaginal, then what was not imagined must be true, real events that happened to real people.

Really excellent! It tells of the trials and tribulations of World War Two Neapolitans, just after the americans arrive - a mixture of fact and fantasy.

Bought as a present

Malaparte as you like...starts slowly but tumbles down the depth of hell most precipitously. A must read for all good stinking christians and others

Je suis très content de ce livre étant Napolitain dans le quel je retrouve des avènements que j'ai vécu décrites comme était la réalité a cet époque et que mémé étant enfant j'ai vu personnellement Je le passerai aussi a mes frères la bas.Merçi

I'm slowly making my way through the New York Review Books Classics list and this has been the most intense, compelling and thought provoking novel so far. It's cynical, tragic,and horrifying, a deeply uncomfortable and emotive read at times. Mesmerizing reading and an old cliche I know but it is difficult to put down once started. Others have already alluded to the synopsis of a war torn and devastated Naples. Nothing romantic about this novel, the reader isn't left with any illusions about the horror of war. It's a novel that packs an emotional wallop. A novel you'll be thinking about long after finishing.

Un testo che farà forse percepire agli anglosassoni quanto la loro presenza in Italia dalla SEconda Guerra MOndiale abbia cambiato il paese. Scrittura sempre imprevedibile, a tratti di grande poesia, sempre stupefacente

Eye opening book by a past master at inventive autobiography. He comes up with masterpieces such as in a dictatorship " Whatever is not banned is compulsory".

a great and shocking book like his other masterpiece 'Kaputt" I shows us war from the inside. His has an unique viewpoint( having started out as an Italian Fascist) He has a view of the American soldier that we cannot find anywhere else. Stylistically he approaches poetry, even in translation.Recommended for mature readers with a grasp of 20th century history.