Clash of Civilisations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A small, culturally mixed community living in an apartment building in the centre of Rome is thrown into disarray when one of the neighbours is murdered. As each of the victim's neighbours is questioned, the reader is offered an all-access pass into the most colourful neighbourhood in contemporary Rome. Each character recounts his or her story - revealing the dramas of emigration, immigration and the fears and misunderstandings of a life spent on society's margins, abused by mainstream culture's fears, preconceptions and insensitivities.

Reviews

"The authors real subject is the heave and crush of modern, polyglot Rome, and he renders the jabs of everyday speech with such precision that the novel feels exclaimed rather than written." * The New Yorker *
"An Italian noir-comedy-satire, written by an Algerian, that effectively breaks rules and has a good time doing it." * Shelf Awareness *
"This short but nearly flawless novel offers an intriguing and satisfying blend of crime and literary fiction." * Booklist *

Author Bio

Amara Lakhous was born in Algiers in 1970. Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio won Italy's prestigious Flaiano Prize and prompted the critic Carlin Romano to ask in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Do we have an Italian Alberto Camus on our hands". Lakhous is also the author of Divorce Islamic Style and Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet.