Long may their drums beat

Manituana (paperback edition) reviewed in The Independent

Boyd Tonkin, Friday, 23 July 2010

First known as “Luther Blissett”, Bologna’s fiction-writing collective return with a stylish, atmospheric and provocative saga set in British America in the years prior to the white-settler uprising of 1776.There’s the rub: turning received ideas on their head, as ever, Wu Ming evoke the coming rebellion mostly through the eyes of the Mohawk nation loyal to George III, the “Great English Father”.
At the core of a sweeping, narrative, bursting with colour and character, stands the real-life war chief, Joseph Brant, stalwart but doomed in his defence of a threatened culture and society.

Quite how the Italian mavericks (here beautifully translated by Shaun Whiteside) conjure fiction of this strength and nuance from a collective remains a puzzle. But long may their drums beat.

WELCOME TO WU MING’S BLOG


We are the Wu Ming Foundation. We are a collective of novelists based in Italy, a country that's living its darkest period since the old days of fascist dictatorship (1922-1945). We are the authors of several novels. As of springtime 2010, three of them are available in English: Q, 54 and Manituana. If you want to know more about us, check these links (they will open in new windows):

Biographical page on our "classic" website

Wu Ming on Wikipedia