Die Zeit ist auf unserer Seite: Engagierte afrikanische Literatur

by elisa-fuchs

In 1943, after the Italian Armistice, Stuart Hood was released from a POW camp in Italy. He walked into the mountains and lived among the peasants and villagers, becoming an activiss with the Partisans. To them he was Carlino.

This is his simple and gripping story of the 11 months of his flight, written from memory in a direct and evocative style. Hood discovered a rural world which belonged to another century, a culture now certainly perished, but then remote, reserved and apart.

"Not only a good escape story, but also a fascinating picture of a vanishing age." (Sunday Telegraph)

Genres: Biography, World War II, Nonfiction

173 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 1973

Reviews

[Leopoldo Nuti]

In spite of what the book cover would make you think, there is little cloak and dagger in this book but there is a lot of soul searching and meditation and reflections. It Is beautifully written and if offers a careful, often affectionate description of peasant life in Italy at the time of the war. The war and the resistance are there too, but as part of a long introspective trip into the author's own soul.

[Jamie Cummings]

A great journey through an italy not yet blemished by modern society. Companions are introduced just as quickly as they are killed, the author reminiscing over returning to their graves years later is the most powerful part of the book in my opinion.

[Maggie]

Stuart Hood was an British officer who, as a prisoner of war in North Africa, was interned in Italy. From September 1943, when he escaped, to August 1944, when he was able to rejoin Allied forces, he lived in the Italian countryside. Initially he spent much of the time alone, evading discovery, sleeping in barns or hedgerows, helped quietly by Italian country folk. Later he found community among the farmers and partisans.

This book is a contemplation about war and its effect on individuals as well as societies, an examination of responsibility and regret and conscience. He notes that in a sense, war itself is an escape from reality, the bizarre splicing in of a superseding reality, one of violence, horror, intensity, and abrupt and even invigorating departures from customs, taboos, expectations. His sojourn in the Italian countryside led him on a further escape which he called "a fugue within a fugue". While he worked with partisans, other escapees, deserters from various armies, and civilians, he also began to experience a sense of belonging in the countryside, something he'd never experienced as a boy in Scotland. Despite the constant danger and uncertainty, there were months he came to regard as some the best in his life.

It's a fascinating, thoughtful, insightful story, beautifully written. I'm really glad I was able to locate a copy in one of the Linked-In libraries in my region.

[Gail]

One of my tutors in my first year at Uni. Lovely man.