{"product_id":"the-dark-heart-of-italy-tobias-jones-9780865477247","title":"The Dark Heart of Italy: An Incisive Portrait of Europe's Most Beautiful, Most Disconcerting Country","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1999 Tobias Jones immigrated to Italy, expecting to discover the pastoral bliss described by centuries of foreign visitors. Instead, he found a very different country: one besieged by unfathomable terrorism and deep-seated paranoia. \u003ci\u003eThe Dark Heart of Italy\u003c\/i\u003e is Jones's account of his four-year voyage across the Italian peninsula. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJones writes not just about Italy's art, climate, and cuisine but also about the much livelier and stranger sides of the Bel Paese: the language, soccer, Catholicism, cinema, television, and terrorism. Why, he wonders, does the parliament need a \"slaughter commission\"? Why do bombs still explode every time politics start getting serious? Why does everyone urge him to go home as soon as possible, saying that Italy is a \"brothel\"? Most of all, why does one man, Silvio Berlusconi-in the words of a famous song-appear to own everything from Padre Nostro (Our Father) to Cosa Nostra (the Mafia)? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Italy that emerges from Jones's travels is a country scarred by civil wars and \"illustrious corpses\"; a country that is proudly visual rather than verbal, based on aesthetics rather than ethics; a country where crime is hardly ever followed by punishment; a place of incredible illusionism, where it is impossible to distinguish fantasy from reality and fact from fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Tobias Jones\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0865477248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780865477247\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e North Point Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/13\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.90d","brand":"Tobias Jones","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926683582719,"sku":"9780865477247","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_93603fd4-08e0-46ea-9e46-ed80e147050c.jpg?v=1681084431","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-dark-heart-of-italy-tobias-jones-9780865477247","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}