The Tartar Steppe

…Il deserto dei Tartari (1940; The Tartar Steppe, also translated as The Stronghold), is a powerful and ironic tale of garrison troops at a frontier military post, poised in expectancy for an enemy who never comes and unable to go forward or retreat.

… (Il deserto dei Tartari [1940; The Tartar Steppe]) were perhaps in part an escape from the prevailing political climate, but they stand up artistically nonetheless. Riccardo Bacchelli, with Il diavolo a Pontelungo (1927; The Devil at the Long Bridge) and Il mulino del Po (1938–40; The Mill on the Po),…