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Recommendations based on Il bar sotto il mareby Stefano Benni
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Zeno's Conscience
by Italo Svevo
A comedic exploration of a man's life and his attempt to turn it around with the help of a psychologist.
The novel is presented as a diary written by Zeno, published by his doctor (who claims that it is full of lies). The doctor has left a little note in the beginning, saying he had Zeno write an ... (Wikipedia)
Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino
A fantastical exploration of the cities of the imagination and the possibilities of life.
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young ... (Goodreads)
The Baron in the Trees
by Italo Calvino
A young boy's journey of self-discovery as he lives among the trees, away from society.
A landmark new translation of a Calvino classic, a whimsical, spirited novel that imagines a life lived entirely on its own terms Cosimo di Rondó, a young Italian nobleman of the eighteenth century, ... (Barnes & Noble)
Ocean Sea
by Alessandro Baricco
A poetic exploration of the sea, full of stories and emotions.
This haunting, suspenseful tale of love and vengeance by the author of the international bestseller Silk surges with the hypnotic power of the ocean sea. In Ocean Sea , Alessandro Baricco presents a ... (Goodreads)
The Late Mattia Pascal
by Luigi Pirandello
A man's journey to reclaim his identity and freedom from a life of dullness and unhappiness.
The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage. His inheritance and the woman he ... (Wikipedia)
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.
In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
An aging knight's adventures and misadventures, filled with chivalry, honor, and satire.
Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in ... (Goodreads)
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Reflections of the Roman Emperor Hadrian on his life, death and the nature of existence.
Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Clown
by Heinrich Böll
A young man's reflective journey through post-war Germany, exploring the consequences of war.
Hans Schnier is the "Clown" of the novel's title. He is twenty-seven years old from a very wealthy family. At the beginning of the story he arrives in Bonn, Germany. As a clown, he had to travel ... (Wikipedia)
The Trial
by Franz Kafka
A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams
An intergalactic quest to find the answer to the ultimate question of life.
After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, , Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect , who drags him into a space-time eddy , ... (Wikipedia)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters
Collection of poetic epitaphs of deceased townsfolk, exploring their lives and secrets.
From spoonriveranthology.net: "Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology was an immediate commercial success when it was published in 1915. Unconventional in both style and content, it shattered the ... (Goodreads)
The Earthsea Trilogy
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A heroic journey of self-discovery and adventure featuring a young wizard in a magical archipelago.
As long ago as forever and as far away as Selidor, there lived the dragonlord and Archmage, Sparrowhawk, the greatest of the great wizards - he who, when still a youth, met with the evil ... (Goodreads)
The Wall
by Jean-Paul Sartre
A soldier's fight for survival in a World War II concentration camp.
'The Wall', the lead story in this collection, introduces three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the gaze of an impartial doctor–seemingly there for the men's ... (Goodreads)
Mostly Harmless
by Douglas Adams
A humorous, intergalactic adventure as a hapless protagonist struggles with existential crisis.
Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch , but she disappears during a hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy. Depressed, Arthur ... (Wikipedia)
The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov
A tale of unrequited love and personal frustrations set in a rural Russian town.
The play takes place on a country estate owned by Pyotr Sorin, a retired senior civil servant in failing health. He is the brother of the actress Irina Arkadin, who has just arrived at the estate for ... (Wikipedia)
Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre
A philosophical exploration of the nature of existence and human freedom.
Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation about the ... (Goodreads)
Marcovaldo
by Italo Calvino
A man's struggles to survive in a modern city, observing the beauty of nature amidst hardships.
The Marcovaldo series depicts the life of a poor rural man with his family living in a big industrial city in northern Italy . The central character of Marcovaldo is an unskilled labourer for the ... (Wikipedia)
The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
A poetic journey through the afterlife, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining ... (Goodreads)
The Missing Piece Meets the Big O
by Shel Silverstein
A story of an incomplete circle in search of its missing piece, learning the joy of contentment.
The story centers on a circular shape-like creature that is missing a wedge-shaped piece of itself. It doesn't like this, and sets out to find its missing piece, singing: Oh, I'm lookin' for my ... (Wikipedia)
The Terra-Cotta Dog
by Andrea Camilleri
Detective story set in Sicily of a missing person and a mysterious terra-cotta dog.
The story starts off with "Tano Il Greco", a tired mafia boss , making a deal with Montalbano to stage his arrest in order for him to save face. The arrest causes Montalbano to have to appear at a ... (Wikipedia)
E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962
by E.E. Cummings
Collection of iconic poetry from the American modernist, exploring themes of life and love.
At the time of his death in 1962, E. E. Cummings was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in America. Combining Thoreau's controlled belligerence with the brash abandon of an uninhibited ... (Goodreads)
Doctor Faustus
by Thomas Mann
A man's Faustian bargain for knowledge and power, with unintended consequences.
The origins of the narrator and the protagonist in the fictitious small town of Kaisersaschern on the Saale , the name of Zeitblom's apothecary father, Wohlgemut, and the description of Adrian ... (Wikipedia)
The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A man's struggle to find his place in society, and the moral dilemmas he faces.
Prince Myshkin, a young man in his mid-twenties and a descendant of one of the oldest Russian lines of nobility, is on a train to Saint Petersburg on a cold November morning. He is returning to ... (Wikipedia)
A Fraction of the Whole
by Steve Toltz
A quirky, whimsical exploration of family dynamics, life's absurdities, and the human condition.
A Fraction of the Whole uses a multi-perspective narrative, often going back in time to show Martin's perspective on events before returning to Jasper's story in the present. The framing narrative of ... (Wikipedia)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
Collection of stories about everyday life in Dublin, exploring the Irish psyche.
This work of art reflects life in Ireland at the turn of the last century, and by rejecting euphemism, reveals to the Irish their unromantic realities. Each of the 15 stories offers glimpses into the ... (Goodreads)
The Kindly Ones
by Jonathan Littell
A former Nazi officer's reminiscences of World War II and his role in the Holocaust.
The book is a fictional autobiography, describing the life of Maximilien Aue, a former officer in the SS who, decades later, tells the story of a crucial part of his life when he was an active member ... (Wikipedia)
Of Love and Shadows
by Isabel Allende
A young woman's journey of courage, fighting for justice in a repressive and dangerous society.
Irene is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job. As a sympathizer with the underground ... (Wikipedia)
Eva Luna
by Isabel Allende
A magical story of a woman's journey of love, adventure and self-discovery.
Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende’s most enchanting creation, Eva Luna : a lover, a writer, a revolutionary, and above all a storyteller—available for the first time in ebook. Eva ... (Goodreads)
