Three Horses: A Novel

by Erri De Luca

Book Overview

From Argentina to Italy, the intense, metaphysical and poetic story of a gardener in love, by Italy's most prominent writer.

"A man's life lasts as long as three horses. You have already buried the first."

Somewhere along the coastline of Italy, a man passes his days in solitude and silence, tending a garden and reading books of travel and adventure. Through these simple routines he seeks to quiet the painful memories of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590511352
• ISBN13: 9781590511350
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

"In nature only beauty contradicts gravity."

In prose that transcends country and time, the protagonist is connected to the earth, his world narrowly defined through the soil, the daily tending of trees a nostrum for the soul. A violent past looms, unexpurgated, years of armed rebellion in Argentina at the side of the woman he loves until forced to escape, sailing away with others who also flee the searchers. He goes first to England, later to Italy, where he builds an uncomplicated existence as a gardener, tending the trees of a rich man, drawing sustenance from the land. At half a century, he has come to a place of peace, at a distance from chaos and heartbreak, where his needs are few. Then he meets Laila, a young woman who sells her body but awakens thoughts of his lost Argentinean wife, the sweet mysteries of such an entanglement drawing him into a complex mix of past and present: "Being with her is like life in Argentina, without a day after." An African stops at the garden gate; the two men begin a quiet friendship as the narrator offers excess blooms that Selim sells in the market. The gardener believes he has finally finished running, that "now my verb is to stay. There is a woman to love." But reading the ashes of their fire, Selim tells his new friend that he must leave: "The ashes see blood, including yours beside it. The ashes don't say love." But the man has finished with leaving, comforted by his work, the growing of things, nature replenishing itself. The vestiges of the old life still remain and he is ever vigilant, eyes constantly shifting through crowds, the innate wariness of years on the run, the days in Argentina imprinted beneath the layers of the years. He now looks at killing differently, a black mark that cannot be erased: "at night you sleep and every sleep contains absolution, and no matter, the murdered one is still there, attached to you." Reassessing the past in light of the present, the narrator has changed, unwilling now to return to his revolutionary ways, always with a glance behind. He has grown contemplative, the gun in his pocket replaced with a book, his words carefully measured. With her easy affection, Laila recalls him for a time, for she is young and has not yet made the decisions that will radically alter her destiny. On every page, DeLuca's prose is riveting, beautifully crafted, a history revealed in phrases that beg to be remembered. The Argentinean revolutionary turns philosopher, a man with a particular history who has heeded life's harsh lessons, grateful to enjoy the bounty of nature and the warmth of the sun upon his hands. Luan Gaines/2005.