My First Seven Years is Dario Fo's fantastic, enchanting memoir of his youth spent in Northern Italy on the shores of Lago Maggiore. As a child, Fo grew up in a picturesque village teeming with glass-blowers, smugglers and storytellers. Of his teenage years, Fo recounts the struggles of the Fascists and Partisans, the years of World War II, and his own tragicomic experience trying to desert the Fascist army.
In a series of colorful vignettes, Fo draws us into a remarkable early life filled with characters and anecdotes that would become the inspiration for his own creative genius.
"Replete with humorous anecdotes and zany events, this book is an entertaining, life-affirming and informative read. ... Fo paints a picture of a bucolic childhood, of wild adventures and japes, but interweaves this innocence with the often brutal political and social realities of the time, which impinge, even if indistinctly, on his child's mind."
Morning Star (UK)
"Masterful scenes of black comedy"
Guardian (UK)
"Expertly translated by Joseph Farrell, My First Seven Years vividly chronicles the Nazi-Fascist scourge. ... A fascinating account of a writer's formative years, by turns tender and sardonic."
