A Far Better Thing I Do...: The 2000 From Monfalcone
Out of stock
In the early months of 1947, 2000 workers from the Monfalcone shipyard and aircraft factory in Italy resigned from their stable jobs and set off for Fiume. They went not because of necessity, but of choice. They were going to build Marshall Tito’s new Socialist Yugoslavia. They were going to construct Socialism in the post-war climate of a Europe where countries were re-positioning and jockeying for new geographic frontiers amidst a new order.
They went in small groups, like gusts of wind. Brothers, cousins, childhood friends… day after day, they made their way towards Fiume. Together they had lived through the Fascist dictatorship of Italy, the war and the occupation of neighboring Slovenia and Dalmatia. Many had fought with the partisans. They were now going to create a new world.
Two years later, the bulk of them returned. Heads hung low. Disillusioned. Silent. Shunned by the Italian community and seen as traitors for their adventure, they continued their lives in silence for the next 50 years.
With the help of others, Andrea Berrini took it upon himself to unlock the silence of that age through face-to-face interviews, documents and oral histories with the protagonists of those times. In so doing, Andrea has reignited the passions, the fears and the machinations which drove those men in their search to build a community where common workers would not be exploited. This book that has emerged enables comparisons with men and women from other parts of the world who had offered their lives for causes that sprung from the heart—for community and the new societies they hoped to build after a chaotic war which had reset the world they had hitherto known.
About the Author
Andrea Berrini is a 60-year old writer and the publisher of Metropoli d’Asia. He started writing short stories and essays at the end of the 80s, collaborating with the most important literary magazines and journals in Italy, as well as writing reports for the mainstream Italian press. He has published four books: L'Anima dei Bulldozer (a report on the slums of Kenya's capital town, Nairobi); Storie Africane (a collection of short stories about people in villages and cities in Tanzania, a country where he lived for almost two years); Quattrini (portraits of people engaged in microcredit projects around the world); and Noi Siamo La Classe Operaia, whose English translation is now being published as A Far Better Thing I Do… The 2000 from Monfalcone by Ethos Books in Singapore.
Berrini is also a businessman most actively engaged, amongst other businesses, in microfinance. He is also currently working on a book about Asian contemporary writers.
Review
“Berrini writes with a strong sense of immediacy, allowing his readers to feel as if they are actually sitting next to Fioravante and listening to his accounts. This description is not as objective as, say, an official report, but it captures the emotions and the atmosphere of the interviews in a very precise manner.”
– Emily Chow, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
• • •
ISBN: 978-981-07-8231-3
Published: 2013
Dimension: 145mm x 210mm
Extent: 238
Finish: Paperback
A Far Better Thing I Do...: The 2000 From Monfalcone
Slide to see
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
Reviews
“Berrini writes with a strong sense of immediacy, allowing his readers to feel as if they are actually sitting next to Fioravante and listening to his accounts. This description is not as objective as, say, an official report, but it captures the emotions and the atmosphere of the interviews in a very precise manner.” – Emily Chow, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
Non-Fiction
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
Khairat Kita: Menelusuri Sejarah Bantuan Bersama di Singapura (Malay edition)
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
E-book
$22.00 SGD
Malayland
E-book
$0.00 SGD
The CAPE Handbook to Advocacy in Singapore
Paperback
$40.00 SGD
On Sundays, We Play
E-book
$39.90 SGD
Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singapore
Paperback
$33.00 SGD
E-Book
$33.00 SGD
We Are Not The Enemy: The Practice of Advocacy in Singapore
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-Book
$26.00 SGD
The Singapore I Recognise: Essays on home, community and hope
Paperback
$27.00 SGD
E-book
$27.00 SGD
Not Without Us: Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Singapore
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Brown is Redacted: Reflecting on Race in Singapore
paperback
$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Khairat Kita: A History of Malay/Muslim Mutual Aid in Singapore
Paperback
$14.02 SGD
E-book
$14.02 SGD
What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
Theatres of Memory
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-Book
$30.00 SGD
Voting in a Time of Change: Singapore’s 2020 General Election
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
E-book
$23.36 SGD
Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited
Paperback
$28.04 SGD
A Guide to the Employment Act and Its Related Legislations (2nd Edition)
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-Book
$26.00 SGD
They Told Us To Move: Dakota—Cassia
Paperback
$18.69 SGD
Siglap at the Crossroads: Memories of Its Only HDB Estate
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-book
$26.00 SGD
This Is What Inequality Looks Like
Paperback
$11.21 SGD
Lancing Girls of a Happy World
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
The Art of Advocacy In Singapore
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
Singapore, Incomplete: Reflections on a First World nation’s arrested political development
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
My Nantah Story: The Rise and Demise of the People’s University
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
Living with Myths in Singapore
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
Singapore: A Portrait In Diversity
Paperback
$26.17 SGD
LGOU: Let God Owe You
Out of stock
Paperback
$14.02 SGD
Growing Up Perempuan
Out of stock
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
A Quest for Freedom
Out of stock
Paperback
$14.95 SGD
I am not a label, I am Gary
Out of stock
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
Budi Kritik
Out of stock
Paperback
$28.04 SGD
Walking With Singapore: The Workers' Party 60th Anniversary
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
Local Encounters in a Global City. Singapore Stories.
Out of stock
Normal
$23.36 SGD
Pay It Forward
$23.36 SGD
The Birthday Book 2017: What should we never forget?
Out of stock
Paperback
$11.21 SGD
A Penniless Boy, Chew Joo Chiat
Out of stock
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On
Out of stock
Out of print
Paperback
$23.00 SGD
Making Sense of Life @ / & SMU: A Partial Guide for the Clueless
Out of stock
Paperback
$18.00 SGD
Speaking Out & Speaking Up: Xinjiao Perspectives
Out of stock
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
The Birthday Book 2016: What is Singapore’s Next Big Thing?
Out of stock
Paperback
$13.00 SGD
A Watershed Election (新加坡政治的分水岭: 林宝音政论文选)
Out of stock
Paperback
$35.00 SGD
Godsmacked
Out of stock
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
World War II @ Bukit Brown
Out of stock
Default Title
$10.00 SGD
Human Resource Case Studies
Out of stock
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
Change in Voting: Singapore's 2015 General Election
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
In Pursuit of NEW LIFE
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
WITHIN & WITHOUT Singapore in the World; the World in Singapore
Out of stock
Paperback
$15.00 SGD
Happy Long Life to You
Out of stock
Out of print
Paperback
$15.00 SGD
The Politics of Defeat
Out of stock
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
25 Years of The Substation: Reflections on Singapore's First Independent Art Centre
Out of stock
Out of print
Attunement
Is life hustling you out of tune? As the week roars by, we invite you to a slice of attunement penned lovingly by our authors, friends, and yours truly. Freshly delivered weekly with care. Intimacy guaranteed. Read selected letters below.
Magical, luminous things
Feb 19, 2022
I have flown across an ocean this week. This still sounds surreal to say.
Read more
No negotiation for blood debt
Feb 14, 2022
The Burmese language resistance poetry is deeply embedded in the country’s colonial past. When mo...
Read more
Burning holes in the darkness
Feb 7, 2022
Poets killed in broad daylight, writers tortured and maimed. I wonder if their ghosts watch on fr...
Read more
