A beautiful story of a bond of friendship that forms in the mountains between two young boys Bruno and Pietro. The story is told from Pietro's point of view and through him, the author weaves a tale about family, loss, and love in generations that came before him. A beautiful, evocative read.

[Note: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.]
I was keen to read this book since last year when it won a number of prizes around the world and for the topics it was about. Having not bought the Italian original version, I was lucky enough to find it available on Netgalley for review.
The book is basically divided in three parts, with the first two, in my opinion, stronger the than the last one.
My expectations from the book were met at all in the first part, since the main character (I don't now how much autobiographical the book is, however I shall note that the author's name is Paolo and the main character is Pietro) is about my age and passed all his youth summers in a small village around Monte Rosa. I then found all the images that described my summers in the mountains: the friendship with locals (Bruno is the main character's alter ego) the playing on small creeks, the walks up to the "alpeggi", the ruined huts in the mountains, built by these mysterious people coming from Switzerland and Austria (the Walser), the end-of-summer storms.
We are then transported some years later, after Pietro's father death, when he receives a piece of land and a hut in the mountains as a legacy. It will be the occasion for him to rejoin with Bruno and spend a whole summer in the alpeggio renovating the hut and for Bruno to start thinking to start his own activity as farmer and breeder.
The last part of the book sees the fall apart of all hopes of Bruno and Pietro, who tries to help his lifelong friend without success. After almost thirty years, youth's friendships are definitely gone. And, as foreseeable, the death of Bruno as a result of his failures in both personal and professional life.
Whereas the book is strong at the beginning, it fades in the last part, with mysterious ways in which the two characters hold up their life for months without the need to work.

"The late August rain came. I remembered them well. These are the days that bring autumn to the mountains: when they are over and the sun come back, its light is less warm and more oblique, casting long shadows."

I love atmospheric stories with remote settings, so when I came across The Eight Mountains, set in the beautiful Dolomite region in Italy, I had to read it! The book follows the lifelong friendship forged between two lonely Italian boys after a chance meeting one summer. Pietro is an only child, living in Milan with his parents. Every summer, his father takes the family into the mountains, where he climbs the rugged mountain peaks in the search of something he never quite manages to find. One summer, Pietro’s mother decides to rent a summer cabin, where she intends to spend the whole holidays with her son whilst his father has to go back to work in the city. It is during this first summer in the cabin that Pietro meets Bruno, a local fatherless boy herding cows near the river where Pietro likes to spend his time. As their friendship blossoms, a lonely summer soon turns into one of adventure and camaraderie as the two boys roam the countryside together.

The Eight Mountains is a beautifully written, bittersweet story that soon drew me into the stunning landscape at the centre of it. As I had hoped, the mountains play a pivotal role in the book, representing the longing each and every character in the book feels, even if they are unable to explain it. Pietro’s father, whose conquering of the various mountain peaks defies the lack of control he feels over the rest of his life; Pietro’s mother, who loses herself in the tranquillity and the simple life the mountains offer; and Pietro, whose friendship with Bruno fills the gap of the lack of siblings and the troubled relationship with his often cold and distant father. Bruno himself is a true mountain dweller, who will be under the spell of this wild and harsh landscape for the rest of his life. The mountains were almost like another character in the book, and I could picture them so clearly!

As the boys grow into men, the story skipped forward a few decades, and we get to meet Bruno and Pietro as adults in the aftermath of Pietro’s father’s death. Pietro, who has been estranged from his father for years, must claim his inheritance, a house his father has built on the lonely and remote slopes of one of the mountains. It was at this point that the difference between the boys became really apparent to me. Bruno is completely under the spell of the mountains that have been his home all his life, whilst Pietro travels the world in search of something he can’t quite explain, much like his father has done all those years. Written solely in the first person from Pietro’s perspective, the adult Bruno with his sad childhood background remains a bit of an enigma, and I would have loved chapters from the POV of Bruno to understand why the mountains had such a strong hold on him that he would risk losing all he held dear to remain there.

Lyrical and introspective, The Eight Mountains is a touching and often sad coming-of-age story of two boys from different family backgrounds. With a stunning landscape that forms another character in itself, this was armchair travel of the best kind.

Paolo Cognetti has written a gentle story of family, lifelong friendship and an insight into the Alps region, particularly around Monte Rosa. The two aspects of friendship and landscape, are always present throughout the book but not in an intense manner. In fact, I would say the narrative lacked a little bit of passion and description as it is told through Pietro’s eyes.

The main storyline is the lifelong undiminished friendship between Pietro and Bruno. We first meet them at the age of 13 when Pietro’s family come to Grana village as a summer resident, while living mainly in Milan. Bruno is brought into the family in a significant way. Pietro’s mother educates him to read and write, his father takes him on hikes into the mountain with Pietro, and the two boys become very close friends.

The friendship isn’t intense but it is genuine and unshakeable. Through the years Pietro tends to go off around the world but particularly in the Himalaya’s, for long periods (maybe years) at a time. When he returns the friendship picks up where it left off. It is one of those friendships that have no prejudices, no judgements and no egotism. Bruno lives his whole life and all year round in Grana and the surrounding mountains. As the years' progress, he becomes more and more remote from society, living in the mountains until deep winter derives him down to the village.

The other facet of the book is a region in the Alps where eight mountains circle a specific location like the spokes of a wheel. I did use Google street view to remotely walk some of the paths around Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn. It’s just awesome. I have always loved hiking and I know the feeling of rounding a corner, coming over a crest or reaching a summit, where the sudden vista is just spectacular. Where you just need to stand perfectly still, trying not to allow your breathing or blood pumping around your body to interrupt the moment. Those that you’re with are doing the same and no one wants to be the one to break the spell. It can be emotional because you have this overwhelming panoramic view with a personal sense of achievement, you have an opportunity to see something that not everyone will get, and there’s the realisation of just how small you are in the scheme of existence. I didn’t get enough of that sense of wonderment or detail from Pietro’s journeys, yet they were in the Alps.

There is a quote from Pietro’s father relating to the grandeur of the Alps compared with other mountain ranges, it’s <i>“like arriving from the mountains of men to find yourself in the mountains of giants. And naturally, he fell in love with them at first sight.”</i>

I have to say that I enjoyed the book and would recommend it, especially if the Alps region is of interest but it did lack a passionate edge from Pietro. All the relationship interactions were very safe and while events happened in their lives, they were dealt with as a matter of fact with no real examination. The father expressed his love for the Alps quite well but Pietro who tells the story seems to have a lacklustre sense of describing his thoughts and feelings.

Many thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

I will struggle with this review because the small novel did not say anything to me. I did not feel anything, only a bit of impatience to finish so I can read something else. I cannot fault the Paolo Cognetti, the novel felt well written and the story, of 2 friends who found themselves in the mountains, should have been endearing. Only that it wasn’t for me. Maybe if I loved mountains more and had warm memories of trekking, I would have enjoyed this more. I like the look of mountains and being on top of them but I prefer getting there by car. I admit I am not a fan of climbing. The main character isn’t either so I should have sympathized with him. Only that I didn’t care about him at all.

This is the story of two friends, Pietro and Bruno. They meet when Pietro’s parents rent a cottage in the mountains, in a small forgotten village. Bruno is the only child in the village and the two children soon begin to spend time together. Each year, Pietro and his mum (and sometimes the dad) spend the summer holidays in this village and the friendship is resumed. When Pietro grows up, he stops visiting and tries to make his life away from his parents in Milan and the mountains. However, he will return to the village due to an unpleasant circumstance and he will get the chance to spend more time with his old friend. It is a simple story, of joy of life and the beauty of friendship but, as I said, it failed to touch me, do not know exactly why.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An unsentimental love letter to the mountains, and also an exploration of the nature of relationships - father and son, mother and son, and friendship between boys and men. Clearly written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the landscapes he describes. Magical.

Reminiscent of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet and Robert Seethaler's "A Whole Life". Cognetti's "The Eight Mountains" is a beautiful tale of rural life in the Italian mountains and the lifelong friendship between two boys, Pietro and Bruno.
Pietro is a solitary city boy, brought up as an only child by his parents in Milan, who travels with his family to the Dolomites for a summer holiday. During his stay he forges a friendship with Bruno, a local boy from the village where their holiday let is situated. While the two boys couldn't come from more diverse backgrounds, they find common ground in their love of the great outdoors and the mountain playground at their disposal.
Pietro's father, Giovanni, is something of a pushy parent. An avid mountain climber, he's driven by his desire to conquer the hills around them and to be the best - the fastest, the toughest, the most peaks scaled. Challenged by altitude sickness, Pietro literally struggles to follow in his father's footsteps, leaving room for Bruno to fulfill some of the father/son bonding that Giovanni desires.
However, he takes things a step too far, when he offers to take Bruno to Milan and give him a more formal education, as Bruno has a father of his own who wants his son to follow in his footsteps, tending their smallholding in the hills producing cheese.
As time passes the two boys drift apart and then are brought back together again by life, death, love and loss, all set against the stunning backdrop of the Italian mountains. This is a beautifully written family saga that will have you engrossed from the start. Cognetti creates vivid, rich, flawed characters to inhabit the harsh but beautiful landscapes to great effect. I couldn't put this book down!

An undemanding plot and sketchy characters unless you consider one of the characters to be the mountain itself, in which case it dominates everything about this book. Sublime descriptions of the Italian Alps in all seasons, winter being the last we experience and well worth the wait.

We follow the intermittent but enduring friendship between two men from childhood to early middle age. Pietro is a city boy who holidays in the village on the mountainside where Bruno grows up. Both have a lifelong connection with mountainous landscapes but where Pietro is also subject to a wanderlust that urges him to travel to other mountains, notably the Himalayas, Bruno wants nothing more than to be able to live his days in his Alpine retreat. Making a living on any mountain is so very difficult, though, and we witness both men’s efforts to secure the home of their choice come to a poignant conclusion.

A gorgeous reading experience, if for the setting alone, and I’d recommend.

This book follows part of the life of Pietro, an Italian boy. His parents live in the city , Milan during this period, however they both love the mountains. Pietro starts spending most of the Summer with his mother in a small village close to Monte Rosa. He meets a local boy there, Bruno, who is almost the same age as him, around 12. His father joins them there at weekends when he can and walks in the mountains both on his own and with Pietro.

And so the scene is set. The writing was vivid enough for me to see the village of Grana. I happily followed the sometimes awkward relationship between the two teenage boys. They explore the area and resume their friendship each summer. Pietro explores with Bruno and climbs in the mountains with his father when he is there. The best way to put it is that then he turns into a real teenager! There is a gap of some years.

The mountains are a constant theme here. Pietro's father explores both on his own and with one or both of the youngsters. Bruno lives on the edge of the mountains and later in the book Pietro returns to them. The Monte Rosa massif has a real presence in the book.

There are times when this simply seems like a gentle ramble through the lives of Pietro and Bruno, growing up and ageing. However, on another level, this goes much deeper. It is about friends and friendship, age and ageing. It is also about time and place and a simple form of living that is rare these days particularly in the Western World. I found it to be a book of real charm, easy to read and often thought provoking.