Used book – The Wild Expectations, Alessandro Mari

1830s: Italy is not yet a nation. While proponents of unification fight from north to south, four characters grapple with their destiny and with history: Colombino the orphan, a naive peasant, who travels to Rome with his mule Astolfo to ask the Pope for a blessing for his union with the beautiful Vittorina; Leda, who, despite herself, goes from convent life to espionage; Lisander, a cynical man with a big heart, an experimental photographer, chasing after fortune and the beautiful eyes of a prostitute; and finally the young Garibaldi, who finds in Brazil the inspiration for his future struggles for Italian unity, but also the love of the voluptuous Aninha.

Alessandro Mari has written a masterful novel, with modern, powerful and sensual prose, for which he received the prestigious Viareggio Prize.

An ambitious fresco that owes as much to Dumas as it does to Pynchon. Fabio Gambaro, Le Monde des livres.