Reviews
" The Eight Mountains is a novel about love for the mountains, but more than that it is about those male relationships that rely on the slow accumulation of understanding where nothing is directly expressed: men, while feeling a lot, say very little, and tragically, sometimes this can be fatal. Cognetti's novel, poetic and properly romantic, achieves a moving grandeur." -- Sunday Times (UK), "A novel that deals with deep themes - friendship, the relationship between generations, the management of one's life - in simple and precise yet evocative language."- Corriere della Sera, "Cognetti captures the elation and melancholy that come with reaching a spectacular summit, only to realize the miniscule part we play in the panoarama of life." -- The Observer (UK), " The Eight Mountains is written in such arrestingly simple language - you can almost feel the Italian phrasing in the translation from Simon Carnell and Erica Segre - that it's impossible not to be gradually sucked into the peaks and valleys of Pietro's life....[T]here's something about the vertiginous setting that lends itself to this kind of contemplation. Cognetti captures the elation and melancholy that comes with reaching a spectacular summit, only to realize the minuscule part we play in the panorama of life."-- The Guardian, "A fine book, a rich, achingly painful story that is made for all of us who have ever felt a hunger for the mountains. Few books have so accurately described the way stony heights can define one's sense of joy and rightness. And it is an exquisite unfolding of the deep way humans may love one another."- Annie Proulx, "Cognetti's novel elegantly paints the terrifyingly beautiful landscape of the mountains at the heart of a brotherly friendship that proves to transcend anything." - Booklist, "Through essential yet extraordinarily evocative and intense language, Cognetti constructs a short novel that many have already called a classic, in which undoubtedly echo the masters who inspired it." - Critica Letteraria, "There is something of [Cognetti's] countryman Primo Levi in the wonderfully lucid sentences and contemplative tone of his prose....a beautifully crafted piece of writing, whose inevitable conclusion movingly sees the past repeat itself."-- Irish Times, " The Eight Mountains is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense of the word. With gorgeously understated, unhurried prose, Cognetti crafts the story of an unlikely friendship between a city boy named Pietro and a young cow herder, Bruno, who lives in the Alpine mountains where the members of Pietro's family spend their vacations....Cognetti's mix of patient observation and sharp insight into the natural world recalls the mastery of Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk ....Even though Pietro is solitary and remote, one can't help caring for him. The brilliant writing helps, but there's something more: His love for nature is profound, a sign that deep currents swirl beneath his crotchety surface, pulling the reader into the vortex of his emotions. Carnell and Segre capture the tone of Cognetti's calm descriptions of nature, setting them in tense contrast with Pietro's discordant thoughts."-- New York Times Book Review
