Book Synopsis
THE MUSEUM OF THE DIGNIFIED AND THE BEAUTIFUL defies classification: it is at once a fable, and poetic meditation on creativity, a paean to literature itself, a realistic drama, an anti-heroic saga, and a portrait of the artist as a young woman—the last being perhaps the book’s most salient theme.
In modern Italy, an old man climbs a mountain of historical (World War I) importance, in the depth of winter, to redeem his unprepossessing life. In the aftermath of this all-but-insane endeavor, there ensues an unlikely triangle of friendship between the old man, a young, soulful nurse who cares for him, and a boy thief.
The author himself is also a character in the story, as the fragile threads between reality and fiction become a testimony to the mystery of the imagination.