Garden of the Finzi-Continis     by Giorgio Bassani, Translated by I Quigley Original title: Il giardino dei Finzi-Continis Original language: Italian Published by Harcourt Pub. Date: 1977 Format: Paperback, 200 pages Dimensions: (in inches): 0.50 x 7.96 x 5.35 ISBN: 0156345706 List Price: $13.00, £11.00 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £11.00 Buy online from Amazon.com for $10.40 Published by Quartet Pub. Date: 1978 Pub. Place: UK Format: Paperback List Price: £6.95 Not available for ordering Published by Quartet Pub. Place: UK Format: Paperback List Price: £6.95 Not available for ordering

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This story is set in the fascist era of the 20s and 30s. The garden lies behind a villa in the prosperous Northern city of Ferrara and is the centre of the happy world of Alberto and Micòl, children of a wealthy Jewish family. Walled away from the ominous rumbles of an Italy slipping more and more under the influence of Nazi Germany, their world eventually shrinks to just this garden — a metaphor for the extirpation of their own lives and that of their community. As their horizons draw in, Alberto slowly sickens and dies of a mysterious wasting disease while the spirited and beautiful Micòl gradually relinquishes both her brilliant career — all professions were closed to Italy’s Jewish citizens after 1938 — and, sensing that she has no future, renounces any fruitful love.


Bassani’s book is a tender, delicate requiem for a drowned world of beauty and intelligence, a diverse and cosmopolitan way of being Italian that Italy robbed itself of, leaving it a country that shares, if to a lesser degree, the curious postwar ‘moral vacuum’ of Germany; a nation on parole, frightened of its own misdeeds and yet also frightened to own up to them.


What makes this requiem effective is the way it transcends these particular events and celebrates the mysteries of beauty, intelligence, friendship and kindness, which are thrown into relief by a melancholy destiny.

‘When I went back...at the beginning of May I found spring bursting out everywhere, the sprawling fields between Alessandria and Piacenza already yellow, the country lanes of Emilia full of girls out on bicycles, already bare-armed and bare-legged, the great trees along the walls of Ferrara already in leaf.’ p183

This beautiful, melancholy story is set in the fascist era of the 1920s and 30s. The garden lies behind a villa in the prosperous Northern Italian city of Ferrara and is the centre of the happy world of Alberto and Micòl, children of a wealthy Jewish family. Walled away from the ominous rumbles of an Italy slipping more and more under the influence of Nazi Germany, their world eventually shrinks to just this garden — a metaphor for the extirpation of their own lives and that of their community. As their horizons draw in, Alberto slowly sickens and dies of a mysterious wasting disease while the spirited and beautiful Micòl gradually relinquishes both her brilliant career — all professions were closed to Italy’s Jewish citizens after 1938 — and, sensing that she has no future, renounces any fruitful love.

Bassani’s book is a tender, delicate requiem for a drowned world of beauty and intelligence, a diverse and cosmopolitan way of being Italian that Italy robbed itself of, leaving it a country that shares, if to a lesser degree, the curious postwar ’moral vacuum’ of Germany; a nation on parole, frightened of its own misdeeds and yet also frightened to own up to them.

What makes this requiem effective is the way it transcends these particular events and celebrates the mysteries of beauty, intelligence, friendship and kindness, which are thrown into relief by a melancholy destiny.

’When I went back... at the beginning of May I found spring bursting out everywhere, the sprawling fields between Alessandria and Piacenza already yellow, the country lanes of Emilia full of girls out on bicycles, already bare-armed and bare-legged, the great trees along the walls of Ferrara already in leaf.’ p183