There’s a long feature in the FT today about the Italian writing collective Wu Ming, Wu Ming’s Magical History Tour, pegged to the English publication of their latest book [amazon_link id=”1781680760″ target=”_blank” ]Altai[/amazon_link]. It’s worth signing up for your free quota of FT articles to read it, if you’re a non-subscriber.

[amazon_image id=”1781680760″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Altai: A Novel[/amazon_image]

The article paints the new novel as a kind of sequel to 1999’s [amazon_link id=”0099439832″ target=”_blank” ]Q[/amazon_link] by Luther Blisset (more or less the same group of people). Both are set in the turmoil of 16th century Europe. Asked why this period, “The 16th century was the foundation of modernity,” replies Wu Ming 4, “of the state, of capitalism, of the idea of the clash of civilisations.”

[amazon_image id=”0099439832″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Q[/amazon_image]

It doesn’t touch on the intervening [amazon_link id=”0099472333″ target=”_blank” ]54[/amazon_link], set in post-World War 2 and dawn-of-cold-War Italy, and speaking even more directly to the conflicts of our own times, and the dreams and nightmares of 20th century idealism.

[amazon_image id=”0434012939″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]’54[/amazon_image]

You have to surrender yourselves to these novels, which defy succinct summaries of plot or meaning. But I loved the first two, which stimulated me to have ideas, make connections, think about surprising conjunctures. I like the style of the collective as well – although I don’t read Italian, they have a blog that looks rather provocative – from what I can glean, they think ‘a plague on all your houses’ about Italian politics, including the Five Star Movement. But then, so do many people think about their politicians in many countries…..

I’ll definitely be reading Altai.