New book by Enrico Cernuschi

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DrG
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Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:20 am
Location: Italia

New book by Enrico Cernuschi

Post by DrG »

Recently I have read a book by one of our fellow members of this forum, Enrico Cernuschi. The title is: "Vincere, vinceremo... e se avessimo vinto?", Gianni Iuculano Editore, 2005, 13,50 Euro, 159 pages. It can be bought directly from the publisher: http://www.iuculanoeditore.it/ or from many other bookstores, for example Tuttostoria: http://www.tuttostoria.it/ (code of the book: 098G023).

Unlike the other texts by the author, published by the prestigious "Rivista Marittima" (the official review of the Italian Navy) or by "Ermanno Albertelli Editore" (one of the most important Italian publishers specialized in military history), this is not, strictly, an historical essay, instead it is an excellent example of "what if" history.
The assumption of this novel (let's call this book in this way, although it is based on a serious research,as we will see) is that the coup d'etat of 25 July 1943 promoted by gen. Ambrosio failed and Mussolini was able to stay in power a little longer. This allowed the Germans to make an armistice with USSR, causing, shortly after, the end of the war also with the Western Allies.
But the facts described in this book are not about this fictional post-WW2 world (except for a few, and often amusing, passages): this fictional part is just used as a divertissement, the real scope of this book is to describe the strategies (mostly the Italian and British ones) that caused the war and that were followed during the war itself.
The text is divided into 2 main chapters: the first is a fictional memorandum written by Mussolini after his retirement, the second is an "interview" by an anonymous journalist (but the clever Italian readers may easily understand that this man is nobody less than Indro M...) to Winston Churchill. Before the memorandum there is a preface, again a fruit of the funny immagination of Cernuschi, but again based on true historic facts, "written by" a great historian: Felice De Renzo (this is a joke, the author has changed the name of one the greatest Italian historians of the XX century: Renzo De Felice, author, in the real world, of the monumental biography of Mussolini in 8 tomes). The book is closed by an explanation, this time outside the narrative fiction, by Enrico Cernuschi himself.
I suggest this text to anybody, but expecially to those who want to learn something (well, much more than a mere "something") interesting on WW2 but, just to change, in an amusing novel.

Guido
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