Literary Fiction

Giorni di collera e di annientamento

(Days of Rage and Annihilation)

Ponte alle Grazie, September 2021, pp.176

A humorous, ruthless novel, an uncompromising satire filled with absurd, grotesque and all-too-human characters.

It’s the story of Doctor Lunfardo, who dreamt of becoming a singer but won the Strega literature prize instead.

Doctor Lunfardo, AKA Don Fifì, dreamt of becoming a Bing Crosby-style crooner but, instead, wrote a hugely successful book and won the Strega prize.

Unfortunately, he got sucked into the terrible world of publishing and his life was ruined. He’s now trying in vain to find a little peace on the shore of Lake Garda, and is besieged by pain-in-the-neck people, relatives, nightmares and hypochondria. Set in provincial Italy during the global pandemic, the story sees countless improbable topics revolve around our “hero”: brazen Neo-Fascist prostitutes riding in Zündapp Wehrmacht sidecars, elderly dentists heading for dementia and still loyal to their pedal-operated drills, demoniacal swamp sirens, railway tramps who were once the kings of luxury bathroom fittings, pilgrims obsessed with Lourdes and sanctuaries around Lake Garda, stalker interns, improbable suicides, conceited aspiring female writers, high-maintenance ménages à trois led by jealous celluloid dolls… A true circus. Permunian gives us a humorous, ruthless novel, an uncompromising satire filled with absurd, grotesque, all-too-human humans.

Ponte alle Grazie, September 2021, pp.176

  • “Permunian is a volcano of invention […] his characters are never banal – on the contrary, they are original to the point of hilarity, as though he were trying to highlight the quirkiness of the human fauna that lives in that region.” “His language, tragic and corrosive, has the energy of the William Tell overture.”

     

    Romano A. Fiocchi, FINNEGANS

  • “An author who enjoys distorting and fragmenting with the specific intent to find a point of equilibrium and a deeply meaningful focal point in the ‘pact of mutual loathing and destruction in the lineage of writers’ that connects him to authors like Antonin Artaud and Giorgio Manganelli.”

    Chiara Fenoglio, LA LETTURA

  • “his style, unique in our literature: tragedy bordering on comedy and farce […] Permunian is on a par with the brilliant outsiders of Italian literature, from Savinio to Landolfi, from Manganelli to Malerba (…) Celati (…) a discordant truth about the human condition that Permunian’s writing sets out to tell us about”.

    Filippo La Porta, ROBINSON, La Repubblica

  • “Gombrowicz (…) is one of the beacons followed by Permunian (…) it’s impossible to live without the absurd.”

     

    Andrea Caterini, IL GIORNALE

  • “Permunian’s new novel is an invective that bites the hand of the drowned in the large river evoked by Roberto Bolaño.”

    Crocifisso Dentello, IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO

  • “A deliberately and brilliantly messy book (…) an anti-novel (…) and irreverent book”.

    Salvatore Silvano Nigro, il Sole 24 Ore

Rights Sold

Argentina:Club Hem.

Francesco Permunian

Francesco Permunianwas born in 1951, in Cavarzere, and has lived in Desenzano by Lake Garda for years now. He is the author of various books, including Costellazioni del crepuscolo (Il Saggiatore, 2017), Sillabario dell’amor crudele (Chiarelettere 2019) and Giorni di collera e di annientamento (Ponte alle Grazie, 2021). His books have been reviewed by major Italian critics.

We use cookies.

This site uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. By using this site, you consent to the use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy. Also read our Privacy Policy.