As you might know I am on a mission to read 52 books this year or one for each month. I am still a bit behind but getting up to speed now. Pregancy leave is helping me! As my 16th book this year I read this real gem of a book:
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
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We follow Pietro, a young Italian boy who grows up in the city of Milan with parents who have their hearts set in the mountains. When he is 13 years old his parents decide to buy a dilapitated apartment in the Italian mountain village of Grana. From that moment on Pietro will spend his childhood summers in the Italian Dolomites. Here he befriends Bruno, a local farming boy and starts a friendship that would span the entire book.
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We grow up with Pietro as the book goes through time. Pietro discovers walking in the mountains with his father, a man he doesn't fully understand. As puberty hits Pietro becomes less interested in these mountain trips with his father and more interested with hanging out with people his age. He and his father grow more distant as Pietro ages. As Pietro spreads his wings and is ready to study and see the world, Bruno in the meantime is still in Grana, where time seems to stand still for him.
We reconvene with Pietro in his 30s, he has travelled the world and has gone to the Himalayas to see the mountains there and has fallen in love with them. He gets word that his father has died and returns to Italy. He comes back to the mountains where he meets up with Bruno. It turns out that when Pietro was off living his life, his father and Bruno went on trips in the mountains together, continuing the tradition that Pietro used to have with his father.
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Pietro also finds out that his father left him a plot of land in the hills above Grana and Bruno and Pietro decide to build a mountain hut together from scratch. As the men work and build the hut they get closer and Pietro also gets to know his father better, who he has misunderstood when he was still alive. As Pietro comes of age and realized more and more who he is and what he wants out of life it is Bruno that will need his support as his life is turned upside down.
Now I loved this story! I picked it up because I love mountains and I have been to the Dolomites in Italy before and fell in love with the area. But this book has surprised me in a positive sense. Not only did it describe the landscape and atmosphere in the mountains to a T, it also does an amazing job as a coming of age novel. Though Pietro is not a perfect character you do connect with him and grow with him as the book continues. The contrast between him and Bruno also makes for an interesting read. I would highly recommend this book! Apparently it is also a movie now, so I will have to check that out!
Are you reading anything fun at the moment?
