Used book – The Tartar Steppe, Dino Buzzati

Happy to escape the monotony of his military academy, Lieutenant Drogo joyfully learns of his assignment to Fort Bastiani, a dark and silent citadel, a useless guardian of a dead border. Beyond its walls stretches a desert of stones and parched lands, the Tartar Desert. What is the purpose of this motionless garrison, on the lookout for an enemy that never appears? Will the Tartars attack one day? Drogo settles into an indefinite, sad, and oppressive wait. But nothing happens, hope fades, the horizon remains empty. As the days, all alike, pass, Drogo gradually glimpses the terrible truth of Fort Bastiani.