A challenging dual time line read about constants in life. It's short, which is a plus in this case. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A strange but intriguing book that tells two alternating storylines touching on love, betrayal, and politics all wrapped up neatly in a little over 100 pages. I enjoyed the initial discovery of the two different plots, but ultimately, something about the style seemed forgettable. I wonder if one of this author's other novels, like The Judgment of Richard Richter might have been a better place to start...

I had trouble enjoying this book. The narrator was interesting, but one of the characters in the first chapter was very unappealing, and I just could not continue on to read this book.

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A Castle in Romagna by Igor Štiks (translated by Russell Scott Valentino & Tomislav Kuzmanovic) is a fictional book alternating in timeline and places, telling two stories which are connected. Mr. Štiks is a prolific Croatian author and editor.

The novel alternates between Renaissance Italy and Tito’s Yugoslavia. A young Bosnian and his friends are touring an Italian castle in 1995, which once held poet Enzo Strecci captive. A friar who live at the castle, Niccolò Darsa, starts talking with the young man offering his own story of escaping from a hostile environment, politically charged.

The story parallels those of Darsa and Strecci where all powerful leaders use their position for petty vendettas, destroying lives and country in the process.

A Castle in Romagna by Igor Štiks (translated by Russell Scott Valentino & Tomislav Kuzmanovic) is a short, but verbose novel. I’m glad I read it, but for much of it I was trudging through, until it comes together at the end.

Even though this is a short book (about 100 pages), it is not easy to read. The author’s rambling style, incorporating long, drawn out sentences is hard to follow and I found myself reading the same line twice.

The subject matter is serious and dark. Emotional leaders making bad decisions, abusing their authority. Humanity, however, stays the same regardless of the external circumstances.

This book is dramatic, but it simply didn’t excite me. There was something muted in the narrative and the delivery. I got the themes, I got the parallels, and I got the ideas (I believe) that the author was trying to convey. Overall the novel was enjoyable, I just felt it fell a bit short.

There are some stories we tell over and over because people always think that, this time, it will go differently. A Castle in Romagna, by Igor Štiks (translated by Tomislav Kuzmanović and Russell Scott Valentino), features two such tales. In the present, a friar at Mardi Castle tells a Bosnian tourist the story of Enzo Strecci and his own story of grand-passion-gone-wrong in post-war Yugoslavia.

The unnamed Bosnia tourist has come to Mardi Castle because he is a fan of the work of a sixteenth century Italian poet, Enzo Strecci, who was executed for falling in love with the wrong woman. After an awkward encounter with a friar who leads tours, the tourist is promised a more detailed story about Strecci. The friar then adds his own, eerily similar story of love and exile.

It’s impossible not to see the parallels between the two. I think the only reason the friar lived to tell his stories is a matter of luck and the fact that he happened to know one decent person in his village. The similarities and the spare way Štiks writes make the narratives almost like fairy tales, archetypes that keep inescapably popping up. The sense of inevitability in both tales made me want to shout into the book at the friar and Enzo to warn them that they’re being idiots.

A Castle in Romagna dials up every emotion to eleven. If you are not a fan of grand passions, this is not the book for you. If you do like watching characters falling in love with the wrong people and throwing all caution to the wind, pick this one up. Based on my post last week and my tone in this post, you can probably tell which camp I’m in. This isn’t the fault of A Castle in Romagna. This is a very well written book. I’m just too pragmatic personally for grand passions.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

Sadly, my reading experience wasn't what I hoped it would be... Here's why. First of all, I REALLY struggled with the writing style. I'm not sure if it's because of the fact it is a translation and some of the magic is lost, but I do know it was really hard to stay focused and keep reading. The prose doesn't flow and more often than not 'formal' or less natural phrases are thrown in. This slows down the pace considerably and kept distracting me from trying to follow the plot. Another thing that didn't work for me was the dual storyline. I felt neither story had enough dept because of it, especially since this novel is not that long to start with. Both plot, background and characters in both storylines lacked fleshing out and honestly I think I would have rather seen two completely separate stories. Also, I think the connection of the two storylines through the 1995 setting and friar telling both stories was actually quite weak, as apart from the fact that both storylines are about doomed love they do not have all that much in common. I do have to say both the 16th century setting and the one in 1948 have a lot of potential, and I truly wish each would have been more developed. As it is, I failed to connect to any of the characters and I'm afraid to say I wasn't able to enjoy my time with A Castle In Romagna.

Interesting international fiction. Beautifully written and the actions of people against one another tell a story all on their own, a story of angry humans.

Don’t think I’ve read any Croatian fiction before, so this was one for the international reading. Albeit not a particularly spectacular one. This short book (practically a novella) is essentially two stories told by a friar to a young man visiting him at an old Mardi castle. The main plot takes place in 1995, but the stories are set in 1535 and 1948, former follows the fate of a poet who spent his last days awaiting execution at the castle, the latter is the story of a friar himself as a young man, both connected thematically as tales of young love gone wrong in face of political turmoil. Now that I’m reading this description it does sound exciting, on paper, no pun intended or maybe yes pun intended. Thing is, though, despite the fact that this was Croatian’s best debut novel when published, despite the striking settings and wildly dramatic arches, it just wasn’t that exciting of a read. Something quite muted about the delivery. Interesting enough with its parallels reflecting on essential invariability of individual experiences and behaviors in times of conflict and so considerately brief, but didn’t quite wow. Thanks Netgalley.