A review by nancyallen
Death in August by Marco Vichi

3.0

Interesting and unexpected style. I don't know if it's the translation, but the only other times I've encountered this style of writing, the books were categorized as magical realism. Perhaps that suits here as well, because the mystery seems primarily a vehicle for presenting the Inspector's recovered memories of sexual abuse as a child and traumatic events as a soldier in WWII Italy, as well as his relationships with his assorted and unusual friends. Being damaged as he is, coping with PTSD can, in fact, lead to departmentalizing and his world does seem to him to be somewhat unreal much of the time. Although he's struggling with his life [and the August heat in Florence], he's warm-hearted and delightful, and very good at his job.