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Nico Orengo. La guerra del basilico. Turin. Einaudi. 1994. 196 pages. L.24,000.
In the late eighties Nico Orengo began to publish his works and immediately won readers' attention. Maria Corti, in reviewing Ribes (1988; see WLT 63:4, p. 662), praised the author's refreshing style, which was clearly more exciting than that of the many so-called new/young writers who had emerged in Italy in the seventies. Orengo's talent was recognized by critics and appreciated more with each novel that followed.
The author's talent in entertaining his readers with relatively short, lighthearted narratives which are both witty and intriguing can be appreciated in La guerra del basilico. The story is set in the author's favorite ambience: the geography between Turin, in Piedmont, and the coastal region of Liguria. For this novel Orengo has chosen the landscapes on the border between Italy and France. The Hotel Tropicana, located on the Italian side of the border about twenty minutes away from Monte Carlo, serves as the main stage for a fascinating love/detective story about poisoning...