The time of killing, by Inio Flayano

"Time of Killing," the orphaned novel by Inio Flayano, which he wrote, as we mentioned, at the request of his publisher, but it quickly received the most important and prestigious Italian literary prize, and now it ranks among the most important novels in the history of Italian literature. Flayano chooses a story incident, not worthy of pride, nor should it be boastful, assigning the narration to the voice of "I, the narrator." It is an incident far from heroism, stemming from an ordinary pain affecting a soldier's molar in the Italian army, prompting him to seek a doctor and to leave his camp in surrealist Africa. From a mistake in walking a shortcut, he gets lost, and his adventure begins by chance. He first convinces himself that he has contracted leprosy, so he flees, then is haunted by the idea that he is wanted for murder, and ultimately he actually becomes a thief and terrorist. Until he reaches Johannes' hut, a mysterious place but perhaps one that can heal him. A highly symbolic novel about wars, it reveals with satirical cruelty that shows no mercy, ending with Flayano with the sound of a military bugle, a single tone fitting the hero of this novel, a monotonous tone that urges soldiers to wake up, and calls them to prepare to return to Italy, but it is also a tone that recounts the failed experiences and crimes committed that tainted the hands of this Italian officer, or perhaps all of Italian colonial history? Number of pages: 413