The book concerns the corporatisation of a spa and the surrounding village, mirroring the spa being used as a Fascist propaganda tool under Mussolini in the past. Whilst the main part of the book is told from the present, the narrator's family from the past intrudes with a question over inheritance of destiny, and the future destiny of the village and world is spelled out.

Whilst the villager's tale seems a very local one, us as readers are linked by our own concessions to globalisation and the wars we may be losing or not caring to fight. The author does well to tread the line between hopeless nostalgia and progress to keep these contradictions alive, making the book very real to life where there are no easy answers.

The writing is great, original, and the the poetry (as mentioned by the quotes from Italian review on the cover) is certainly maintained by the translation. ( )