In Sardinia: An Unexpected Journey in Italy
(By Jeff Biggers)
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“At last, a grand companion to the mysterious and enchanting island of Sardinia. Known to most travelers for its beaches, Sardinia’s complex archeological heritage extends back to Neolithic times. Written with verve and love, In Sardinia is the book I’ll be taking on future trips.” -Frances Mayes, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun
"More than a travelogue, compendious and evocative."--Times Literary Supplement
"A fascinating journey."--Kirkus Reviews
"Erudite guide."--Wall Street Journal
"A magnificent achievement."--Tobias Jones, author of The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River
"The book is a successful and well-written blend of history, travel, art, literature, and culture,"--Washington Independent Review of Books
A fascinating book that reads like a novel.”— Rick Steves, “Travel with Rick Steves” radio
"A consummate storyteller, Jeff Biggers deftly weaves his modern Sardinian odyssey into the fabric & folklore of this enigmatic island with a light touch that carries the reader along."--Italia! magazine
"A fine mix of geography and history that offers a vigorous riposte to the various misunderstandings heaped upon Sardinia."--Booklist
"In Sardinia is a delightful travelogue that unearths magical stories from beneath island stones."-- Foreword Reviews
Award-winning historian Jeff Biggers opens a new window into the hidden treasures of Sardinia in a groundbreaking travel narrative that crisscrosses one of the most enigmatic places in Italy
After three decades of living and traveling in Italy, Jeff Biggers finally crossed over to Sardinia, uncovering a treasury of stories amid major archaeological discoveries rewriting the history of the Mediterranean.
Based in the spectacular port of Alghero, guided through the island’s rich and largely untranslated literature, he embarked on a rare journey around the island to experience its famed cuisine, wine, traditional rituals and thriving cultural movements.
“Sardinia is something else. Enchanting spaces and distances to travel,” D. H. Lawrence wrote in 1921. On the 100th anniversary of Lawrence’s visit, Biggers opens a new window into the history of the island, chronicling how new archaeological findings have placed the island as one of the cradles of the Bronze Age. From the Neolithic array of Stonehenge-like dolmens and menhir stone formations to the thousands of Bronze Age “nuraghe” towers and burial tombs, the vastness of the uninterrupted cycles of civilizations and their architectural marvels have turned Sardinia into the Mediterranean’s ”open museum.”
Beyond its fabled beaches, reconsidering how its unique history and ways have shaped Italy and Europe today, Biggers explores how travelers must first understand Sardinia and its ancient and modern history to truly understand the rest of Italy.
In the tradition of Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia, Mark Kurlansky’s Basque History of the World, and Frances Mayes’ and Tim Parks’ narratives on Italy, In Sardinia is a major new addition to travel writing and literature in Italy.
"A deeply satisfying dive into the Sardinian soul, but at the same time the writing is so spare and essential - almost as if Biggers somehow reflects the silences and spaces of the island as well. Every page taught me something new about Sardinia's literature, legends, landscape, icons and customs. A moving book which traces the contours of the terrain and hears its ancient voices. A magnificent achievement." --Tobias Jones, author of The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River
"In Sardinia is an indispensable and necessary international guide. To discover a Sardinia still little known outside the national borders and to reveal its multiform riches and diversity. It is no coincidence that this opens with the Ogliastra artist Maria Lai and closes with the poet of Desulo, Montanaru, just as it is no coincidence that, in this almost intimate text, the many "Sardinias" are represented through a kaleidoscopic variety of languages and cultures, landscapes and knowledge, sounds, tastes and encounters. In Sardinia is an unmissable journey that starts from an inner story to be shared with the vast world. A journey capable of filling that profound void, which makes that stone thrown into the Mediterranean a teeming patch of land yet to be revealed." -- Paolo Fresu, legendary Italian jazz musician and composer”
