The Red Horse

The Red Horse (Italian: Il cavallo rosso, 1983) is an epic novel written by Eugenio Corti that follows an industrial family, the Rivas, in Nomana starting from the end of May 1940 through World War II and the new democratic Italy.

The book is divided in three parts:

The book is a metaphor for the genesis of the new democratic Italy that arose out of the ashes of the chaos of pre-fascist, fascist and war-torn Italy. The new Italy is governed by division and loss of conservative Christian values and the question is posed by Michele Tintori if the chaos is a result of this loss. It was translated into English and published by Ignatius Press in 2002.

The novel begins in late Spring 1940 in the town of Nomana (a literary depiction of Corti's hometown Besana in Brianza) where the inhabitants live on agriculture, farming, or work in the textile mill owned by the local industrialist Gerardo Riva, Ambrogio's father. In the afternoon of 10 June, the workers gather in the town square to hear Mussolini's declaration of war over the loudspeakers. However, they receive the news with no enthusiasm: fascism has very few supporters in Nomana, where most people sympathized for the Italian People's Party of which Gerardo used to lead the local branch. Moreover, all the inhabitants are staunch Catholics, and their everyday life is shaped by devotion. As war progresses, young men are sent off to several fronts: North Africa, Russia, Albania. Michele Tintori is captured by Soviet troops and interned in several Gulags, but survives. After the breakup of 8 September 1943 Manno enlists in the Italian Co-Belligerent Army, and others join the partisans, but see a gap digging between themselves and some fellow combatants as the resort to revenge becomes more widespread in the Italian Resistance, in contrast with their Christian beliefs.

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