Synopsis
The startling biography of the woman who joined the cause and transformed the life of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the man who united Italy in 1860.
Chicago newspaper - Fra Noi
In Valerio's hands, the little we know of Anita through earlier accounts becomes enlarged and takes on a life of its own. Beyond the boring facts of history we gain the spirit that made those facts important enough for us to remember over a century after her death. "Anita Garibaldi: a Biography" is a mosaic portrait composed from dozens of sources and different voices, united through story as bona fide history. While what we have in writing about Anita Garibaldi has been known for some time, Valerio provides new insights to this historical information not by coming up with new information, or by revising earlier accounts, but by applying the novelist's tricks to the biographer's trade. This synthesis brings us new perspectives on a life that is normally overshadowed by her husband.
Just as Valerio varies sentence length and sounds to create various paces, he also varies the length of the chapters so that they become more like scenes in a dramatic film and less like sections of a predictable documentary. Most of the writing is so good you'll almost forget it has an academic base until you consult the endnotes, bibliography, or index, all accurate and helpful.