The Unseen

By Nanni Balestrini

Book Overview

For a brief explosive period in the mid-1970s, the young and the unemployed of Italy's cities joined the workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy ( Autonomia ). Its "politics of refusal" united its opponents behind draconian measures more severe than any seen since the war. Nanni Balestrini, the poet of youth rebellion, himself a victim of that repression, has invented a remarkable fictional form to express the hopes and conflicts of the movement. In spare but vivid prose, The Unseen follows Autonomy's trajectory through the eyes of a single working-class protagonist--from high-school rebellion, squatting and attempts to set up a free radio station to arrest and the brutalities of imprisonment. This is a powerful and gripping novel: a rare evocation of the intensity of commitment, the passion of politics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1844677672
• ISBN13: 9781844677672
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.7"