Alessandro Spina, een auteur van Syrische afkomst die later Italiaans staatsburger werd, schreef werken die vaak koloniale thema's verkenden. Zijn schrijfstijl werd gewaardeerd om zijn uitzonderlijke kwaliteit en diepgang, zoals blijkt uit zijn uitgebreide correspondentie met prominente literaire figuren. Na vormende jaren in Libië en Milaan, vestigde hij zich definitief in Italië om zich volledig aan de literatuur te wijden. Zijn romans, later verzameld in de cyclus "De Grenzen van de Schaduw", duiken in de complexiteit van identiteit en menselijke relaties binnen een postkoloniale context.
Set against the backdrop of Italian colonization, this volume explores the profound changes in Libya, particularly in the coastal city of Benghazi. Through a rich tapestry of narratives, Alessandro Spina delves into the cultural and social transformations experienced by the people of Libya during this tumultuous period. The work is part of a larger sequence, offering a deep and nuanced portrayal of colonial impact and its lasting effects on the region.
This is the first installment of a three-volume translation, and it includes
The Young Maronite, The Marriage of Omar and The Nocturnal Visitor, which are
set between 1912 and 1927.
The short stories which comprise the second volume of The Confines of the
Shadow, The Colonial Era, are set in the interwar period, between the late
1920s, when Italy began solidifying its power in its new Libyan colony, and
the end of World War II, when control of the country passed into British
hands.
The modern classic about the colonization of Libya continues, as Italy watches its prized colony slip away.The Confines of the Shadow maps the transformation of the Libyan city of Benghazi from a sleepy Ottoman backwater in the 1910s to the second capital of an oil-rich kingdom in the 1960s. The short stories that comprise this second volume are set in the period between the late 1920s, when Italy began solidifying its power in its new Libyan colony, and the end of World War II, when control of the country passed into British hands. Italian military officers idle their time away at their club or by exploring the strange lands where they have been posted, always at odds between the nationalistic education they received at home and the lessons they’ve learned during their time in Libya.Employing a cosmopolitan array of characters, ranging from Italian soldiers to Ottoman functionaries, The Fourth Shore (the term was Mussolini’s name for the Mediterranean shore of Libya) chronicles Italy’s colonial experience from the euphoria of conquest—giving the reader a front-row seat to the rise and subsequent fall of Fascism in the aftermath of World War II—to the country’s independence in the 1950s. The discovery of Libya’s vast oil and gas reserves will trigger the tumultuous changes that led to Muammar Gaddafi’s forty-two-year dictatorship.
