My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An afternoon of reading, an investment of pure joy. The topic is still fresh 64 years later. But, more importantly, the writing, the storytelling, and the translator’s fluidity are what make this worth the effort. It’s a very short novel (127 pages in my edition) and not all the characters aren’t fully developed, but there is enough to entice you, to hear things “on the wind” or in the background. There is enough structure to hold you and the story together through to the end.

This reminds me a little of Sándor Márai’s Embers novel, in how it makes you feel on the inside. There is just a mood that pervades, the envelops you while you read it. I heartily recommend this translatiopn by Anne Milano Appel of Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity.