La amante del populismo

Margherita Sarfatti (1880-1961), Italian journalist and intellectual, daughter of a wealthy Venetian family of Jewish origin, was Benito Mussolini's biographer -as well as his lover for twenty years- and shared with him decisive moments in the founding and growth of the fascist movement, which is the obvious root of populism, both right and left. Marcos Aguinis, after an extensive and rigorous investigation, recovers his voice and unfolds it in a remarkable historical report in which, based on the written work of Margherita, and through the ensemble of history, criticism, essay and novel, he constructs an interview singular and in more ways than one revealing. The conversation, always friendly but never complacent, develops agile, sharp, intelligent and unconcerned; In its course, no aspect of the private life and public action of the man who imposed a totalitarian and autocratic regime on Italy is left aside, no detail is eluded. Mussolini's first weapons as a journalist parade through these pages, his military career, his political rise, his link with Adolf Hitler and his decisive participation in World War II, but also his volcanic intimacy and the darkest aspects of his personality.