Antonio Tabucchi at the Complete Review

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Antonio Tabucchi
at the complete review:

Name: Antonio TABUCCHI

Nationality: Italy

Born: 23 September, 1943

Died: 25 March, 2012

Awards: Prix Européen Jean Monnet

Prix Médicis Etranger

Attended University of Pisa
Taught at University of Genua and University of Siena
Has close ties to Portugal
Has travelled extensively through India and Latin America

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Bibliography

Highlighted titles are under review at the complete review

Piazza d'Italia - novel, 1975
Il piccolo naviglio - novel, 1978
Letter from Casablanca - stories, 1981 (Il gioco del rovescio, trans. Janice M. Thresher, 1986)
The Woman of Porto Pim - stories, 1983 (Donna di Porto Pim, trans. Tim Parks, 1991; first published in the collection Vanishing Point)
Indian Nocturne - novel, 1984 (Notturno indiano, trans. Tim Parks, 1988)
Pessoana minima: escritos sobre Fernando Pessoa - non-fiction, 1984
Little Misunderstandings of No Importance - novel, 1985 (Piccoli equivoci senza importanza, trans. Frances Frenaye, 1987)
The Edge of the Horizon - novel, 1986 (Il filo dell'orizzonte, trans. Tim Parks, 1990)
The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico - quasi-stories, 1987 (I volatili del Beato Angelico, trans. Tim Parks, 1991; first published in the collection Vanishing Point)
Un baule pieno di gente: scritti su Fernando Pessoa - non-fiction, 1990
Requiem - novel, 1990 (Requiem, uma alucinação, trans. Margaret Jull Costa, 1994)
Dreams of Dreams - fiction (English trans. includes Sogni di sogni (1992) and Gli ultimi tre giorni di Fernando Pessoa (delirium, 1994 (The Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa)), trans. Nancy J. Peters, 2000)
Pereira Declares - novel, 1994 (Sostiene Pereira, trans. Patrick Creagh, 1995)
The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro - novel, 1997 (La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro, trans. J.C.Patrick, 1999)
It's Getting Later All the Time - novel, 2001 (Si sta facendo sempre più tardi, trans. Alastair McEwen, 2006)
Tristano Dies - novel, 2004 (Tristano muore, trans. Elizabeth Harris, 2015)
For Isabel - mandala, (2013) (Per Isabel, trans. Elizabeth Harris, 2017)

Please note that this bibliography is not necessarily complete.

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Quotes

What others have to
say about Antonio Tabucchi:

"Antonio Tabucchi continues his progress towards becoming an Italian Graham Greene." - The Economist (17/5/1997)

"Whereas Calvino produced fiction that read like tightly controlled prose poems Tabucchi creates stories that are elliptical puzzles, not so much concluding as trailing off -- they appear to end just when we hope they will continue." - Ronald De Feo, The Nation (6/6/1994)

"Tabucchi is always a disturbing writer. He understands that life (and art) is filled with plots, omens, secrets." - Irving Malin, Review of Contemporary Fiction (Fall, 1990)

"Tabucchi's writing is, above all, an artifice, a self-referring stem whose decodification demands a previous knowledge of the intellectual and artistic coordinates of the writer. Tabucchi is one of the most careful observers and original interpreters of the narrative and esthetic tendencies which emerged in Europe during the last two decades." - Anthony Costantini, World Literature Today (Summer, 1995)

"By now the appearance of a new novel by Antonio Tabucchi is a literary event." - Charles Klopp, World Literature Today (Winter, 1998)

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Pros and Cons
of the author's work:

Pros:

Playful, clever texts
Does both description -- of people, places, and food -- and complex concepts very well
Gentle, moral voice

Cons:

Brief, often elusive texts too vague for some readers
Few easy answers or clear endings
Almost as many (English) translators as books, varying in quality and without a single voice
Not all his significant work available in English

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the complete review's Opinion

     Antonio Tabucchi is one of the leading European writers, a man whose new works are eagerly anticipated, and who is widely translated across the continent and beyond. An Italian whose second home is Portugal he writes elegant and clever little books, stories and short novels that are deceptively simple yet manage to pack a great deal in relatively few pages.
     Tabucchi's characters are not loud or important people, but there is a humanity to almost all of them -- one which Tabucchi carefully reveals and emphasizes. There is anger at the Fascist legacies of specifically Italy and Portugal, and social injustice more generally, but Tabucchi presents it without loudly raging. Nevertheless, his censure is more resonant and effective than that of most socially engaged authors.
     Tabucchi writes well, equally adept lingering over a meal (preferably Portuguese) as presenting a dialogue on a philosophical or political topic. In some of the early works he tried too hard for effect, but in the more recent work he seems much more sure of himself and his writing. The latest novels, Pereira Declares and Requiem, seem almost effortless and read extremely well.
     Tabucchi's interest in Portugal, Portuguese food, the poet Pessoa, and India crop up repeatedly in his work, as do certain periods and certain types. Nevertheless, even when his work is another variation on a familiar theme he generally brings much that is new to it.

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Links

Antonio Tabucchi:

Antonio Tabucchi at books and writers
Profile in The Independent
Antonio Tabucchi at Italia Libri (Italian)
Antonio Tabucchi's Books at the complete review:

Dreams of Dreams (A-)
The Edge of the Horizon (B)
The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico (B+)
For Isabel (B+)
Indian Nocturne (B+)
Letter from Casablanca (B)
The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (A-)
Pereira Declares (A-)
Requiem (B+)
See also:

Index of Italian literature
Index of other Author Pages at the complete review

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