The Last Homeland

Description

The air, until that moment as still and stagnant as a mountain puddle, began slowly, inexplicably, to move, bringing a breath of cold, healthy wind that dried the tears on her face and stirred her long hair. That breath from the north was rousing her, calling her as a father calls a daughter. She recognised it immediately. It was the wind from the border, the wind she had known before. It had come to pity her and raise her up, to command her to keep going.

In the two years since Jole and her father Augusto returned home from across the border, peace has reigned in their mountain village. But the calm is shattered by the arrival of two bandits, who have heard of Augusto's hidden gold and are determined to take it for themselves. When Augusto and his wife are murdered during a botched robbery, Jole finds herself alone. Moved by a thirst for revenge and armed only with her father's rifle, she and her horse Samson set out in search of justice.

Matteo Righetto lives and works in Padua, at the border of the wilderness of north-eastern Italy. Among his best-known novels are the celebrated La pelle dell'orso(The Bear Skin), recently made into a film, and Apri gli occhi(Open Your Eyes), winner of the Premio Cortina 2016.

Howard Curtis has more than thirty years' experience working as a literary translator from Italian, French, and Spanish, and has translated the work of authors such as Georges Simenon and Luigi Pirandello.

'(A) taut, stylish novel...Will appeal to fans of Cormac McCarthy, and it almost reads like a European version of a western. A stark and beautiful natural setting, strong female protagonist, and the rhythm and raw economy of the prose make Soul of the Border seductive.' The Ageon Soul of the Border