[Trilogia dell'Altipiano 01] • Histoire de Tönle

Tönle Bintarn's story takes place in the Veneto region, which once bordered

the Austro-Hungarian Empire and where smuggling provided a means of

subsistence to the peasants. Having run afoul of revenue agents, Tönle must

seek refuge beyond the frontier in Central Europe, where year after year he

survives by doing odd jobs and working as an itinerant print peddler, a horse

trainer, and a gardener. When he is pardoned he returns home for good to find

his children are grown and nothing remains for him but to tend his sheep,

while around him Europe spins toward the catastrophe of the Great War--the

conflict that will destroy Veneto's unique way of life.