Michele e il Guerriero

Vittorio Quatraro

This is a collection of seven short stories, certainly on a par with those of Italy’s most celebrated writers of this type of literature, particularly Italo Calvino.

Michele e il Guerriero (i.e., Michael and the Warrior) is the first of the stories, and the one that gives the book its title. This initial tale is a somewhat fictitious narrative of Michele’s fortuitous unearthing in 1934 of a statue that dates to the sixth century BC, and is now called the Warrior [of Capestrano]. Michele, an uneducated farmer, is clearly at a loss to understand the commotion caused by his accidental discovery of a sculpture that turned out to be, perhaps, the most significant sample of the art and culture of the peoples who inhabited central and southern Italy before they were subjugated by Rome. However, Michele’s innate dignity and sound common sense enable him to cope with the situation--and to keep his head while all those around him are losing theirs.

The next three stories are autobiographical. Here the author narrates some of his emotional experiences, first as a boy during World War II, and then as a young adult.

These are followed by another that sketches out the true and unorthodox remedies applied by a small-town, jovial and avuncular drug store owner to keep young people out of trouble, in the first half of the past century.

Of the last two stories, both fictional, the first tells of a kleptomaniac, well-to-do and attractive lady’s perpretration of a theft in a jewelry store, and of the unintended consequences, as well as the happy results of her action. The other dwells on the vicissitudes of a bank manager who has always operated in an honest, upright way, but is cajoled by wealthy professionals and businessmen into cooking their books for purposes of tax evasion. In the end, he turns the tables on them by depositing huge amounts of their money to his own untraceable foreign account.

The price of the book, inclusive of shipping and handling, is:
Italy Euro 13.00; Rest of Europe Euro 14.00; U.S.A. $20.00; Canada $25.00; Australia $26.00.

The publisher, AVIS (an acronym for Italian Association of Volunteer Blood Donors), will use the entire amount of sales proceeds to promote donations of blood, organs, and bone marrow, as the author, a retired physician, has waived his right to royalties.

To order the book, make check or money order payable to AVIS Popoli, and mail to:

AVIS Popoli, Mario Cerasoli President
Via Mazzini, 82
65026 Popoli (PE)
Italy