TEMPO DI UCCIDERE

First published in Italy in 1947 and in the same year it was the winner of the first edition of the Strega Prize. A modern classic of Italian literature.

The novel takes place against the backdrop of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-36). There, a chance encounter and an accidental shooting leave a young woman dead and a young soldier attempting to reason away responsibility and assuage his guilt. The novel exhibits a blend of existentialist themes, dark humor, and keen observations of human nature, often drawing comparisons to Camus or Sartre. Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Italian literature, it offers a poignant critique of imperialism and the destructive forces of nationalism. Known for its powerful depiction of the Ethiopian landscape and culture, as well as its unflinching portrayal of the horrors of war, Tempo di uccidere stands as a testament to Flaiano's narrative prowess and thematic depth. Ennio Flaiano was born in Pescara in 1910. In 1922 his family moved to Rome, where he completed his high- school education. Towards the end of the decade Flaiano began rubbing elbows with the literary and artistic circles of the capital. In 1935 and 1936 he took part in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, which would inspire his most successful novel Tempo di uccidere (Strega Prize 1947). He wrote review columns for newspapers such as "Corriere della sera", "L'Espresso" and "L'Europeo", and reported from Canada and Israel. After the war he made a living contributing to the scripts of many films, working with Antonini, Rossellini, Soldati and even Fellini, who involved him in masterpieces such as I vitelloni, La dolce vita and Otto e mezzo. Flaiano also wrote several plays (La guerra spiegata ai poveri, 1946; La donna nell'armadio, 1957). In these works as well as others such as the short stories collected in Una e una notte (1959) and the epigrammatic pages of Diario Notturno (1956) and Le ombre bianche (1972) Flaiano proves himself as a great moralist, a keen investigator of Italian society with a penchant for humour and satire. His masterpiece is Tempo di uccidere, the story of an Italian soldier in Abyssinia who accidentally kills an Ethiopian girl and ends up wandering aimlessly, unable to shake off the nightmares, the guilt and the fear of having caught leprosy.