Barnabo with the Mountains

The novel «Barnabo with the Mountains» tells the story of a group of forest rangers living in the seclusion of the alpine forests, tasked with guarding a hidden abandoned warehouse in the mountains. One night, the warehouse is raided, and the young ranger Barnabo, overcome with fear, abandons his post, for which he is expelled from the group. The young man must descend into the valley and live far from the mountains in painful anticipation of the day when he can rectify the mistakes of the past. Barnabo is the first of Buzzati's heroes to experience the relentless force of time, a theme that will appear in other works by the author, including the famous parable «The Tartar Steppe».