La Mia Montagna by Giancarlo Ferron

The publishing project of Edizioni Biblioteca dell'Immagine can be called decidedly brave.

To give a voice to literary works that speak of real life, life where there is no room for fiction but rather the chance to express the deepest "human feeling".

"La mia montagna" by Giancarlo Ferron has the features of a decidedly experimental book; he himself calls it a "novel-guide to the mountains". And in fact this book is neither a guide nor a novel but, much more simply, the account of how a man ends up drawing close to mountain country. The narrative structure of the text breaks completely out of any canon, and if on the one hand this is precisely the astonishing aspect, on the other we are sorry that this journey alongside Giancarlo lasts too short a time. There are a good 147 pages, alternating generous descriptions of the territory with brief but incisive introspective reflections.

On the introspective side, Giancarlo himself will say at the end of the book that many of his intimate thoughts will remain hidden in his private life, as is right. The mountains lead us to question sides and flaws of our character. This walking therapy in the mountains is so intense that it is lived in an extremely personal way. But in writing, Giancarlo never forgets his reader, always choosing a line of exposition that is never heavy and a light, balanced choice of themes.

The book is printed on heavy glossy paper to give greater prominence to the very many photographs taken by the author during his journey. The photos are marvellous, the printing and colours excellent, never artificially altered. In them we find exceptional shots of: animals, trees, flowers and panoramas... The alternation of reflections, descriptions, photos and hiking information makes the book never boring, quick to read and of great interest.

We can only thank Biblioteca dell'Immagine for having supported a work as intelligent, new, different and alternative as Giancarlo Ferron's. A work that would not have found support from the few big publishing houses that homogenise their selection of texts and publish relying on stereotypes and clichés that are by now outdated.

By the same author we have also reviewed La Zampata dell'Orso.