Scan barcode
william1349's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't actually finish it (Goodreads should have a 'gave up' option) but I don't know why. Not bad but I couldn't get into it.
steph1rothwell's review against another edition
4.0
Escape.
A political thriller set in the 1980s in Italy and France.
I didn't understand most of the politics but I did enjoy the story set around them.
I quite liked Filippo , indeed had some sympathy in the beginning. But when he started to write his second novel my opinion altered. My favourite character was Lisa who was dedicated to her cause and also to finding out the truth about her former lover's murder.
Many thanks to Arcadia Books for sending me a copy of this novel.
A political thriller set in the 1980s in Italy and France.
I didn't understand most of the politics but I did enjoy the story set around them.
I quite liked Filippo , indeed had some sympathy in the beginning. But when he started to write his second novel my opinion altered. My favourite character was Lisa who was dedicated to her cause and also to finding out the truth about her former lover's murder.
Many thanks to Arcadia Books for sending me a copy of this novel.
komet2020's review against another edition
5.0
Over the past few years, I've had the pleasure of reading four (4) of Dominique Manotti's novels. What makes them so compelling and hard-to-put-down is that she has an unerring knack for putting the reader in the heart of the action from the very beginning. With an economy of words, Manotti sketches out the salient features and mannerisms of the main characters, puts them into a challenging situation or two, and the reader is taken on a thrilling ride.
Here in "ESCAPE", the reader is put into the midst of a prison break involving 2 convicts from an Italian prison in February 1987. One of them - Carlo - is a long-time leftist revolutionary and member of the Red Brigades, which had posed a significant challenge to the Italian governments during the 1970s and early 1980s - and the other, Filippo Zuliani, is a thief and petty criminal from Rome in his early 20s. Both men had been cellmates and had become close friends over the 6 months they had been incarcerated together. Filippo marvelled over the stories Carlo shared with him about his life as a revolutionary which went back to the 1960s. Indeed, Filippo was so impressed by Carlo's stories that he developed from the older man a deep love and appreciation for words.
Anyway, a car was waiting a short distance from the prison. Two people - a man and a woman - quickly ushered Carlo and Filippo inside, driving them out into the countryside, where both men eventually went their own separate ways. (Carlo had suggested that should he need to get out of the country that he had a close friend in Paris --- Lisa Biaggi, a journalist, political exile, and Carlo's onetime girlfriend from Italy -- with whom he could make a contact and find assistance. So, he gave Filippo's Lisa's address and later called Lisa to apprise her of Filippo's situation.)
Filippo at first feels at a loss without Carlo as he makes his way from the mountains to Bologna, where he manages to obtain a newspaper and learned that something dreadful had happened to the older man. Eventually, Filippo makes his way out of Italy to Paris and ends up at Lisa's doorstep (she's hardly impressed with him and distrusts him; nevertheless, as a favor to Carlo, she refers him to her friend Cristina Pirozzi, a self-assured attractive doctor in her early 40s - a political exile like Lisa -- who rents out an adjacent apartment to Filippo and finds him a job at La Defense as a nighttime security guard).
It is now March 1988. Filippo has been shaken by his experiences of the past year and reflects a lot on what Carlo had told him about himself and his revolutionary activities. He spends many lonely hours amid the tedium of his job thinking about the spellbinding stories Carlo had told him in prison. Eventually, Filippo is compelled to write about an incident loosely based on his escape from prison and on Carlo's stories. In the process, he pens a novel and slides its contents in an envelope under Cristina's door. A day later, she comes across Filippo's novel, reads it, is much impressed by it, and invites him to the neighborhood cafe --- Cafe Pouchkine --- for drinks. Cristina arranges to have Filippo's novel sent to a top publisher she knows, and secures him a contract.
Filippo's novel proves to be unexpected best-seller, earning high critical praise and for Filippo a new sense of self. But Filippo's newfound fame as a writer turns out to be a mixed blessing as the Italian government is uncomfortable with the dizzying success of a novel that bears a striking similarity to a attempted bank robbery in Milan from the previous year that led to the death of 2 carabinieri, a security guard, and someone close to Lisa Biaggi. Filippo's status in France is called into question by Rome, while Paris mulls over Rome's objection to Filippo's protected status in France.
As stated in the back cover of "ESCAPE", "Filippo [after being carefully coached by his publishers] steadfastly refuses to admit that the book is anything other than fiction, but the public don't believe him. Nor do the police." The pressure continues to build and build until... Well, you'll have to read this novel to find out what ensues. I assure the reader of this review that he/she won't be disappointed.
Here in "ESCAPE", the reader is put into the midst of a prison break involving 2 convicts from an Italian prison in February 1987. One of them - Carlo - is a long-time leftist revolutionary and member of the Red Brigades, which had posed a significant challenge to the Italian governments during the 1970s and early 1980s - and the other, Filippo Zuliani, is a thief and petty criminal from Rome in his early 20s. Both men had been cellmates and had become close friends over the 6 months they had been incarcerated together. Filippo marvelled over the stories Carlo shared with him about his life as a revolutionary which went back to the 1960s. Indeed, Filippo was so impressed by Carlo's stories that he developed from the older man a deep love and appreciation for words.
Anyway, a car was waiting a short distance from the prison. Two people - a man and a woman - quickly ushered Carlo and Filippo inside, driving them out into the countryside, where both men eventually went their own separate ways. (Carlo had suggested that should he need to get out of the country that he had a close friend in Paris --- Lisa Biaggi, a journalist, political exile, and Carlo's onetime girlfriend from Italy -- with whom he could make a contact and find assistance. So, he gave Filippo's Lisa's address and later called Lisa to apprise her of Filippo's situation.)
Filippo at first feels at a loss without Carlo as he makes his way from the mountains to Bologna, where he manages to obtain a newspaper and learned that something dreadful had happened to the older man. Eventually, Filippo makes his way out of Italy to Paris and ends up at Lisa's doorstep (she's hardly impressed with him and distrusts him; nevertheless, as a favor to Carlo, she refers him to her friend Cristina Pirozzi, a self-assured attractive doctor in her early 40s - a political exile like Lisa -- who rents out an adjacent apartment to Filippo and finds him a job at La Defense as a nighttime security guard).
It is now March 1988. Filippo has been shaken by his experiences of the past year and reflects a lot on what Carlo had told him about himself and his revolutionary activities. He spends many lonely hours amid the tedium of his job thinking about the spellbinding stories Carlo had told him in prison. Eventually, Filippo is compelled to write about an incident loosely based on his escape from prison and on Carlo's stories. In the process, he pens a novel and slides its contents in an envelope under Cristina's door. A day later, she comes across Filippo's novel, reads it, is much impressed by it, and invites him to the neighborhood cafe --- Cafe Pouchkine --- for drinks. Cristina arranges to have Filippo's novel sent to a top publisher she knows, and secures him a contract.
Filippo's novel proves to be unexpected best-seller, earning high critical praise and for Filippo a new sense of self. But Filippo's newfound fame as a writer turns out to be a mixed blessing as the Italian government is uncomfortable with the dizzying success of a novel that bears a striking similarity to a attempted bank robbery in Milan from the previous year that led to the death of 2 carabinieri, a security guard, and someone close to Lisa Biaggi. Filippo's status in France is called into question by Rome, while Paris mulls over Rome's objection to Filippo's protected status in France.
As stated in the back cover of "ESCAPE", "Filippo [after being carefully coached by his publishers] steadfastly refuses to admit that the book is anything other than fiction, but the public don't believe him. Nor do the police." The pressure continues to build and build until... Well, you'll have to read this novel to find out what ensues. I assure the reader of this review that he/she won't be disappointed.
jackielaw's review
4.0
Escape, by Dominique Manotti, is a short novel that manages to pack in as much action and character development as a work of twice the length. It tells the tale of a small time criminal who escapes from prison in the company of a political freedom fighter. The sparse language and fast moving plot require attention, although the book is not a difficult read, and I found myself having to put it down from time to time to digest what had just happened. As in life, the narration of the tale is not always clear cut, memory being as much influenced by audience and current circumstance as on what happened in the past. The reader is left to ponder which, if any, version of the ‘escape’ is actually true.
The book is a translation of the French novel, L’Evasion, but this never detracts from the flow or pace. The detail of the politics can be hard to follow at times for those who are unfamiliar with Italy and France in the 1970′s and 80′s, but the camaraderie and self righteousness felt by those fighting for a cause can be universally recognised.
I found few of the characters likeable, but could empathise with their reasoning and aspirations in light of events described. As the layers of the freedom fighter’s character were revealed, his love life and relationships with those he met in prison, his subsequent, apparently contradictory, actions became more believable. It was interesting to consider him through the eyes of those who had known him at different points in his life.
The ease with which the small time crook had his book published seemed a little unreal, but as this was pivotal to the plot I can understand why the author did not wish to waste too many words on the process. Throughout the book few words are wasted, it is tightly written and riveting.
I particularly liked the way the author developed the character of this young man, a fabulous example of smoke and mirrors. In learning quickly from his publisher and effectively reinventing himself through his writing, he could have been in any one of the versions of the ‘escape’ described. Was he weak, naive, a quick learner or a clever actor?
The denouement was not a surprise, it is hard to see how else the book could have ended and it was certainly well written. We are told in the Afterward that the author herself turned from political activism to writing novels ‘par désespoir’. Perhaps, just as those in her story wondered at how much truth there was in fiction, we could be asking that question of her.
My copy of this book was provided, gratis, by the publisher, Arcadia Books.
The book is a translation of the French novel, L’Evasion, but this never detracts from the flow or pace. The detail of the politics can be hard to follow at times for those who are unfamiliar with Italy and France in the 1970′s and 80′s, but the camaraderie and self righteousness felt by those fighting for a cause can be universally recognised.
I found few of the characters likeable, but could empathise with their reasoning and aspirations in light of events described. As the layers of the freedom fighter’s character were revealed, his love life and relationships with those he met in prison, his subsequent, apparently contradictory, actions became more believable. It was interesting to consider him through the eyes of those who had known him at different points in his life.
The ease with which the small time crook had his book published seemed a little unreal, but as this was pivotal to the plot I can understand why the author did not wish to waste too many words on the process. Throughout the book few words are wasted, it is tightly written and riveting.
I particularly liked the way the author developed the character of this young man, a fabulous example of smoke and mirrors. In learning quickly from his publisher and effectively reinventing himself through his writing, he could have been in any one of the versions of the ‘escape’ described. Was he weak, naive, a quick learner or a clever actor?
The denouement was not a surprise, it is hard to see how else the book could have ended and it was certainly well written. We are told in the Afterward that the author herself turned from political activism to writing novels ‘par désespoir’. Perhaps, just as those in her story wondered at how much truth there was in fiction, we could be asking that question of her.
My copy of this book was provided, gratis, by the publisher, Arcadia Books.
More...