Animals of the Alpine Front

by Don Zancanella

From a remote village near border between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire unrolls the intimate story of Teresa and Carlo, two young people whose paths cross and recross as they are first impelled by parents, then forced by sweeping world events to leave their childhood homes for lives they never imagined. Having left her mother and cherished dog Allucio, in Ulfano, Teresa works as a domestic servant in a large villa in Trento. She survives the Great War in the occupied city by banding together in a makeshift family with the other servants of the owners who have fled to escape the occupation. Carlo, still new to Italy and with barely passable Italian, is just finding his footing in Trento, when he’s dragged from bed at his boarding school, along with his classmates, and conscripted by the invading army. In a comical twist of fate, Carlo’s childhood near the Colorado gold mines motivates his captors to place him with a company of miners tasked with digging entrenchments and bunkers. Out of sheer loneliness, Carlo writes letters to Teresa, a girl he met only once in Trento. After the war, Carlo returns to Trento and reconnects with Teresa. Times are unsettled, as soldiers and those who fled the war flood back to the city and signs of the impending Influenza epidemic appear. With so much chaos, tradition gives way to new ideas, so neither worries about the consequences of their growing attachment. However, the same independence that has them dreaming of a future that didn’t exist when they were children, may pull them apart forever. 

Genres: War

336 pages, Hardcover

Published August 20, 2024

About the author

Don Zancanella has won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and an O.Henry Prize. One of his stories was cited as a distinguished story of the year in the 2019 Best American Short Stories and another one was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has published widely in literary magazines. His books include WESTERN ELECTRIC, a collection of stories; CONCORD, a novel about Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Sophia Peabody, and Nathaniel Hawthorne; and A STORM IN THE STARS, a novel about Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and the writing of Frankenstein.

He was a middle school teacher and a high school teacher and taught at the University of New Mexico. In addition to writing fiction, he has an interest in the teaching of literature and writing.

He now lives in Boise, Idaho and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Jean-Louise]

As a huge fan of WWI fiction, I’m always on the lookout for new and engaging stories from that era, and Animals of the Alpine Front absolutely delivers. This novel brings a fresh perspective to World War I, set along the often-overlooked Italian and Austro-Hungarian border. Additionally, the inclusion of animal welfare and the role of animals in the Great War is heart-wrenching and important. The prose is lyrical and immersive, effectively capturing both the intimate and grand moments in the characters’ lives.

The story highlights the resilience of the human spirit amidst wartime chaos by combining historical detail with a heartfelt love story. It’s an excellent example of skillful writing and compelling narrative, and I've thought of the journey of Teresa and Carlo often since finishing. Five stars!

[TsarinaTyna]

A very interesting, and oftentimes heartbreaking, tale of life at the beginning of, during, and just after The Great War (WWI) in Northern Italy. The story is told from the perspective of Teresa, a young woman from a small mountain town in Northern Italy who comes to the "big city" of Trento to work in the kitchen of a wealthy Italian family and also from the perspective of Carlo, a young American boy whose father takes him back to the same small mountain town in Northern Italy when he strikes it big in the gold mines of Colorado. Carlo decides he would do better in life by going to school in Trento where one day he crosses paths with Teresa. Their encounter is extremely brief but Carlo holds the memory of the beautiful young girl in his mind when he is forcibly taken from his school and conscripted into fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The book alternates between the lives that Carlo and Teresa are forced to live during the war and all the injustices and horrors they encounter. This story documented very well the hardships that were faced by both man and beast during that terrible time and it ends with a very realistic and unromanticized conclusion to how their lives came together again after the war ended. Kudos to the author for his realism, thoughtfulness, and in-depth research into what life was like in the Alto Adige during the war. So many books have been written about the atrocities of WWII (and rightly so) but this story helps to show how traumatic the first world war was as well and how many lives it affected. This was a very well written and interesting book with realistic characters and a lot of historical accuracy.

[Barbara Totherow]

“The Great War” usually summons images of Gallipoli or the nightmare Western Front, but Don Zancanella's novel adds a fascinating new dimension to the picture with his setting of northern Italy's no-man's-land. Here, on the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where every sign (even today) is in both German and Italian, not even locals can be sure who is friend----or enemy.

In this unique setting, the young American Carlo (from the mines of Colorado) and the Italian Teresa (from a small Sud-Tyrol village) meet by chance, and both are forced---literally---to play unexpected roles in the war raging around them.

Teresa's discovery of the war's terrible impact on donkeys, horses, and other animals, as well as the devastation of the Spanish Flu pandemic at war's end, further complicate the evolution of the relationship of these two young people.

Animals of the Alpine Front is beautifully written, a new look at this complex period that changed everything---and ushered in the modern world.

[Andrea George]

I was thrilled to receive a copy of "Animals of the Alpine" by Don Zancella in the LibraryThing raffle. I read a lot of novels, and historical fiction is right up there with my favorite genre. Mr. Zancanella does a truly amazing job of developing the plot, characters and setting in this thought-provoking novel. Providing two very different prospectives of World War I through the eyes of Teresa and Carlo definitely added to the storyline. Based on the title of this novel, I was expecting the plot to revolve more around the animals and not the human factor. Even though animals played a small part, they weren't the main focus. The ending was different from what I was expecting, but not in a bad way. The ending was more realistic. The only con that I can say about this novel, is that in my opinion, it did drag on in a few places. However, it would not take away from my recommendation of this well written World War I novel.

[Cirrelda Snider-Bryan]

Animals of the Alpine Front transported me to Italy (as well as Colorado at the beginning), and into the lives of two youth on the brink of and as they are becoming adults. Writer Don Zancanella sets each in richly developed networks - one a household, the other an army unit. In each, Zancanella shows their thinking and choices juxtaposed to widely varied characters and extenuating circumstances. Zancanella draws the two along, each in their different setting, giving the reader the hope that they both will meet again, because we see their prospective compatibility. It was getting to know these two, Teresa and Carlo, that kept me engaged and enjoying this book. The depiction of both place as well as war was also appreciated. Thank you, Don Zancanella.

[Carrie]

Thanks to the publisher author for providing me with a copy to review.
Experience the life of the women who helped create the Tiffany glass windows and artifacts and the reactions that Mr. Tiffany made regarding their successes and learning process. Also, experience the life the women created for themselves outside of work including their joys and fears especially Emilie Pascal who was forced to return to Paris with the other women for Paris World's Fair though she had fled the city to allow her to succeed in her own right without the negative atmosphere of her family name.

[Pat Bailey]

3.5 stars for me.

The storyline was very engaging. The writing was a little choppy. The chapters alternated between the two main characters, Carlo and Teresa. The "animals" really came into the picture towards the end of the book. Although the main characters were fiction, one was not. Leonard Hawksley ran the animal clinic and was the only "non=fictional" character in the book. He was instrumental in developing the Anglo-Italian Society for the Protection of Animals. This book touches on WWI, animals in the war and the subsequent Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

[Juanita]

Received from Giveaway on LibraryThing.

Overall, a good story. It had an uneven pace, but that is war. I enjoyed the two different perspectives, they gave a clear picture of the lives being lived. I was hoping for more of the animal theme in the story, it seemed like a sidebar, like the author had an idea at the end the include it. I think that would make an amazing sequel.

I would not say this is a love story or a war story, but a human story. It kept me engaged throughout the book.

[Alison E.]

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought. The short chapters alternating between Carlo's and Teresa's point of view kept me reading, sometimes too late at night. I learned a lot about the history of Italy at that time period. For example, I didn't know that part of the north was under Austrian rule and that young men could be taken to fight for the other side.

[Scott McIntosh]

Fantastic read! Don does it again with another wonderful novel of historical fiction that takes you to another place and another time and makes you feel like you’re walking alongside these characters. A pure joy to read from beginning to end.