The astrakhan coat

A nameless protagonist tells the story of his life in post-war Paris in the first person. Drawn to France and its capital, seen as a Mecca to which every man should make a pilgrimage in his life, the forty-year-old from Luino, on Lake Maggiore, goes to the shadow of the Eiffel Tower without a specific plan, seeking opportunities to change his life or at least adventures to tell people about when he returns to Italy. The man manages to convince a widow, Mrs. Lenormand, to rent him a room in her house, but he has to share it with the cat Domitien, who has no intention of leaving the room. The woman, at first hesitant and shy, gradually begins to get used to his presence and relates to him episodes of her life and that of her son Maurice who appears to have abandoned her to go and live in Indochina. The resemblance between Maurice and the young Italian, both physical and in terms of affinity of soul, strikes Mrs. Lenormand to the point that during the winter she decides to give him some of her son's clothes, including an Astrakhan coat, in the style of the Russian fashion at the time of the Tsars. At the same time, the protagonist begins to date a girl named Valentine, but one day she gets upset when she sees him wearing the coat, which reminds her of the one that belonged to a past love of hers. Piero Chiara writes a novel with a European feel. Despite starting from the places close to his heart, where most of his novels are set, it moves to the French capital, where the protagonist, perhaps partly an autobiographical character, tries to find a broader horizon than that of the quiet Italian province. The author also retraces the places of his life on the pages of the Pirelli Magazine, in which he publishes two articles: “La sponda magra” (The lean shore) in 1952, in which he describes a spring trip on the shores of Lake Maggiore, and “Valsolda piccolo mondo” (Valsolda small world) in 1962, in which he tells of a visit to the Lombard valley between Lakes Como and Lugano, following in the footsteps of Antonio Fogazzaro.  

Il cappotto di astrakan
Piero Chiara
Mondadori, 1978