Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio: A Novel

What happens when a Roman policeman investigates a murder in an apartment building housing an Algerian, an Iranian, a Philippine, a Bangladeshi, a Dutch, as well as a Milanese, a Sardinia and a Neapolitan? We discover that the distrust of immigrants is merely an extension of the distrust of other parts of their own country, just as in the USA or anywhere else in the world. A tiny book packed with humor and wisdom.

I purchased this book because it will be required reading for the entering Cornell class of 2018. The Cornell alumni are encouraged to participate, including reviewing and answering the study questions. I found the book an interesting and highly relevant study of immigration and emigration issues while trying to solve a kidnapping and murder. The book also highlights the need for greater communications to cross cultural and socio-economic boundaries. Having recently been to Italy, I am reminded of the tour guide instruction on the cultural and dialect differences of former Italian city states in Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples, These differences are exposed in the book as well as the cultural differences of other countries. Although Italian unification is just over 100 years old, the book highlights many issues still confounding their assimilation into one Italy and mirror our own experiment in democracy. The author's style of narrating the book from each character's point of view may be a challenge for some; I found myself needing to take notes, e.g., motive, alibi, etc., like the crime boards on television, to solve the mysteries.

This wonderful satire joins the increasing list of shared immigrant experience, this one taking place in a diverse Roman neighborhood. Each character uses a few pages to explain themselves, their attitudes, their theories about the murder at the core of the structure, which cannot be properly called a plot but more of a social investigation. Even characters from Italy's other communities are allowed their particular voices, reminding the reader that before the mid-19th century, Italy was not a country but neighboring city states each with its definitive government and set of tradition. The author, himself an Algerian import, writes with a clear eye, warm heart, and more than a little humor.

Best title ever and an interesting pair with his Divorce Islamic Style - I think this could be somehow more sophisticated - each voice is maybe too much a point of view rather than a full character but it reads quickly and as the book unfolds you get a better sense of how the characters interact and whom to trust even though each chapter is essentially a monologue.

This wonderful book dissects the complex multicultural society of present-day Rome with profound humor and psychological insight. Constructed like a crime novel, the narrative presents a rich array of characters from different parts of the world, as well as from various parts of Italy, as they try to relate to each other using different languages and dialects. The author constructs a masterful psychological narrative around a murder investigation, exposing the workings of racial prejudice and cultural misconceptions among a small neighborhood in Rome. This novel not only confronts the "new Italy," but also exposes the undercurrents of racial prejudice (and hatred) that move our modern world.

I love the characters on the cover and Amara has a brilliant talent for creating people that feel like they are talking/yelling right at you. A murder mystery, political commentary and social miasma on the Piazza!

A dead body is found in the elevator of an apartment building in Rome. But don’t get your hopes up, this is not a whodunnit. In fact, it’s a whybother. The dead man is named Gladiator, and apparently nobody liked him much. But the book is not about him either. It’s about a missing tenant named Amadeo, who is being accused of the murder. In each chapter a different tenant talks about Amadeo’s virtues and about their suspicions about other tenants who all come from a different country or, even worse, a different part of Italy. It’s a very short work, but I had to push to finish it because I found it crushingly boring.

It was interesting but the format didn't change throughout the book which ultimately led to boredom and left no room for surprise.

‘This morning Iqbal asked me if I knew the difference between a tolerant person and a racist. I answered that a racist is in conflict with others because he doesn’t believe they are on his level, while a tolerant person treats other with respect… The racists problem is not with others but with himself… he doesn’t smile at his fellow man because he doesn’t know how to smile at himself’.This short novel, originally written in Italian received the prestigious Flaiano prize and is the second offering of Amara Lakhous. Born in Algiers and currently resident in New York, his work reflects his academic research areas of cultural anthropology and the treatment of minority groups. ‘Clash of Civilisations’ centres around a diverse group of residents living in an apartment building in city centre Rome. Their respective worlds are thrown into disarray when one of the tenants, Amedeo, is murdered. Mutual suspicion and mistrust between people of different backgrounds leads to a complex web of partial insights, half-truths and prejudicial assumptions which inform each respective tenant’s account of the facts.Dealing with racism, loneliness and exclusion, this novel provides insight into the ways in which we are all limited by our own inherent prejudices, our social mores and our limited fields of vision. The novel delves into this history of the characters, documenting the brutalising experiences of life as a refugee, the horror and precariousness of life as a displaced person, the everyday injustices of ‘in-group’/’out-group’ politics, and the redeeming hope that can be found in basic human kindness. The book has strong elements of comedy, tragedy and satire, all rolled into one effortlessly insightful reflection on life in modern urban cities.Such a powerful and insightful read for such a short book.

Boring

What a delightful insight into "who is Italian"? Sensitively and beautifully written. What's more, it's a page Turner.An unexpected delight.

The journey was good but the ending was hopeless. Some good lines and an interesting premise - the clash of viewpoints and our inability to see things from someone else's perspective. But the ending felt like it had been glued on once the author got bored.

Ho preso questa libro perché richiesto dalla professoressa di inglese di mia figlia.Rimasta contentissima ha una pagina in italiano e una in inglese. Si è trovata benissimo.