The Skin - Curzio Malaparte
Human beings' capacity for survival is celebrated as one of our greatest traits, but often its what we must do to stay alive that keeps us up at night. This is the subject of The Skin, set in Naples in 1944 just after the Allied liberation. The city is in ruins and the black market is thriving. The novel's narrator is a former fascist collaborator turned Ally liason. The story is surreal and darkly comic and a strong reminder that high-minded civilization is forever teetering over an abyss of chaos.