An extraordinary coming-of-age memoir by the Nobel-Prize-winning playwright 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. In spare comic vignettes translated from the Italian, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright chats about growing up in a mountain village during the 1930s and '40s and how those boyhood roots affected his storytelling and performance art. He hints at some exciting stuff, and readers will wish there was more about his family's work with the partisans in smuggling Jews and Allied prisoners across the border to Switzerland. But he is so concerned with avoiding the heroic that the narrative, full of ruminations about first love, becomes almost too laid-back in tone. Most interesting is the talk about his discovery of "underlying paradox," which became the basis for his writing. In a hilarious chapter, he shows how paradox works in the Ulysses saga ("it's clear that Ulysses never had the slightest intention of returning home. He was more than happy with his round of non-stop affairs"). Many of these vignettes, ripe with ironic fun, are perfect for reading aloud. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "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."--Ian Thomson, author of Primo Levi: A Life "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) "A mezmerizing portrayal of early childhood, told with great panache and well-timed comedy."-- Good Book Guide (UK) "Dario Fo's crafty and uproarious memoir...both hilarious and deadly serious."-- The Socialist Review DARIO FO was born in 1926 in northern Italy. He began working in theater as a comic and actor. Together with his wife, Franca Rame, he has been highly successful as an actor, director, and writer of satirical comedies for the theatre. His work has been politically important in Italy and won him international acclaim. In 1997 Dario Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. JOSEPH FARRELL is an award-winning translator of Italian novels and plays and is the author of Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Harlequins of the Revolution . He lives in Scotland.