Books
fromThe New Inquiry
4 days agoNessuna Torno Indietro - 1938, 2025
There's No Turning Back, banned under Mussolini in 1941, is now available in a new English translation.
Carlos Manuel Alvarez's second novel is a hugely rewarding, polyphonic narrative of migration from Cuba. Through its characters' rich and eccentric interior worlds, it gives articulation to people whose lives are often reduced to stereotypes and offers a new vision of migration. False War is comprised mostly of 13 interconnected storylines, which alternate irregularly in short episodes. The stories have different timelines and vary significantly in their portrayals of an array of characters, many from Havana, a city of many stray sadnesses.