Overview

It was the Autumn of 1969, and Italy exploded. Across the north of the country, factory workers stormed out on strike, demanding better pay and working conditions. The slogan “We Want Everything” rang through the streets. Italy’s “Hot Autumn” had begun. In Nanni Balestrini’s fictionalized account of the uprising, a young worker from Italy’s impoverished south arrives at Fiat’s Mirafiori factory in Torino, where he barely scrapes by with fourteen hour days of backbreaking work. His frustration is palpable, and soon he is agitating again his bosses for fun and giving himself minor injuries to win sick leave. Soon enough, he is swept up by a snowballing worker movement that leads to months of continuous strikes at Mirafiori. Eventually, the conflict bubbles out of the factory. The growing pressure having produced an inevitable crack, the streets are lined with barricades, and tear gas wafts into private homes. Introduced by Rachel Kushner, author of the critically acclaimed The Flamethrowers, We Want Everything is an explosive account of a revolution that would clear the way for another decade of radical unrest.

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9781784783693

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Reviews

A fine example of a literary use of expressions that were then burgeoning in factories and mass meetings, caught between student unrest and worker fury. --Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose In this fierce, compelling novel, Balestrini has found a way to individualise the universal, and universalise the individual, creating a document of the Italian labour struggles of the 1970s that has great value both as art and history. Balestrini becomes a channel for the working-class narrator, who stands for all the Southern masses who come north to the car factories to participate in the Italian 'economic miracle.' It's a book which charted a new course for fiction, one that deserves further exploration. --Hari Kunzru, author of Gods Without Men We would do well to study how it was that Balestrini made politics and fiction and art, all in once place ... one of the most compelling pieces of literature of the entire second half of the twentieth century. --Rachel Kushner, New Yorker One of the best novels of 2016 ... Nothing could seem further from or more relevant to our historical moment. --Chicago Tribune Only Balestrini ... has succeeded in reconciling the tragic--epic spirit of the revolutionary movement and the ironic--combinatorial spirit of literary experimentation ... [We Want Everything] is probably the most important Italian literary work of the 1960s. --Franco Bifo Berardi, author of Heroes and The Soul at Work We Want Everything dramatically and ecstatically captures a historical moment. It is an exciting tale resplendent in emotion about a movement that engulfed the factories of Italy in the late 1960s and was part of a greater political and cultural challenge to the uberlords of the world's capitalist class --Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch As demands arise again that echo the demands of the period--less work, more pay, more leisure, guaranteed income--We Want Everything sends a stirring reminder that these are not new demands, and that although it is a new generation rising to the challenge, it is the same fundamental struggle that continues. --PopMatters Balestrini was present during the 'Hot Autumn' he depicts in this arresting novel, and he follows the young Italian workers with a clear eye and spare prose. --San Francisco Chronicle

A fine example of a literary use of expressions that were then burgeoning in factories and mass meetings, caught between student unrest and worker fury. --Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose In this fierce, compelling novel, Balestrini has found a way to individualise the universal, and universalise the individual, creating a document of the Italian labour struggles of the 1970s that has great value both as art and history. Balestrini becomes a channel for the working-class narrator, who stands for all the Southern masses who come north to the car factories to participate in the Italian 'economic miracle.' It's a book which charted a new course for fiction, one that deserves further exploration. --Hari Kunzru, author of Gods Without Men We would do well to study how it was that Balestrini made politics and fiction and art, all in once place ... one of the most compelling pieces of literature of the entire second half of the twentieth century. --Rachel Kushner, New Yorker One of the best novels of 2016 ... Nothing could seem further from or more relevant to our historical moment. --Chicago Tribune Only Balestrini ... has succeeded in reconciling the tragic--epic spirit of the revolutionary movement and the ironic--combinatorial spirit of literary experimentation ... [We Want Everything] is probably the most important Italian literary work of the 1960s. --Franco Bifo Berardi, author of Heroes and The Soul at Work We Want Everything dramatically and ecstatically captures a historical moment. It is an exciting tale resplendent in emotion about a movement that engulfed the factories of Italy in the late 1960s and was part of a greater political and cultural challenge to the uberlords of the world's capitalist class --Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch As demands arise again that echo the demands of the period--less work, more pay, more leisure, guaranteed income--We Want Everything sends a stirring reminder that these are not new demands, and that although it is a new generation rising to the challenge, it is the same fundamental struggle that continues. --PopMatters Balestrini was present during the 'Hot Autumn' he depicts in this arresting novel, and he follows the young Italian workers with a clear eye and spare prose. --San Francisco Chronicle

A fine example of a literary use of expressions that were then burgeoning in factories and mass meetings, caught between student unrest and worker fury. -Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose In this fierce, compelling novel, Balestrini has found a way to individualise the universal, and universalise the individual, creating a document of the Italian labour struggles of the 1970s that has great value both as art and history. Balestrini becomes a channel for the working-class narrator, who stands for all the Southern masses who come north to the car factories to participate in the Italian 'economic miracle.' It's a book which charted a new course for fiction, one that deserves further exploration. -Hari Kunzru, author of Gods Without Men We would do well to study how it was that Balestrini made politics and fiction and art, all in once place ... one of the most compelling pieces of literature of the entire second half of the twentieth century. -Rachel Kushner, New Yorker One of the best novels of 2016 ... Nothing could seem further from or more relevant to our historical moment. -Chicago Tribune Only Balestrini ... has succeeded in reconciling the tragic-epic spirit of the revolutionary movement and the ironic-combinatorial spirit of literary experimentation ... [We Want Everything] is probably the most important Italian literary work of the 1960s. -Franco Bifo Berardi, author of Heroes and The Soul at Work We Want Everything dramatically and ecstatically captures a historical moment. It is an exciting tale resplendent in emotion about a movement that engulfed the factories of Italy in the late 1960s and was part of a greater political and cultural challenge to the uberlords of the world's capitalist class -Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch As demands arise again that echo the demands of the period-less work, more pay, more leisure, guaranteed income-We Want Everything sends a stirring reminder that these are not new demands, and that although it is a new generation rising to the challenge, it is the same fundamental struggle that continues. -PopMatters Balestrini was present during the 'Hot Autumn' he depicts in this arresting novel, and he follows the young Italian workers with a clear eye and spare prose. -San Francisco Chronicle

Author Information

Nanni Balestrini was born in Milan in 1935 and was a member of the influential avant-garde Gruppo 63, along with Umberto Eco and Eduardo Sanguineti. He is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including Blackout and Ipocalisse, and novels such as Tristano, Vogliamo Tutto, and La Violenza Illustrata. He currently lives in Rome, where he runs the monthly magazine of cultural intervention Alfabeta2 with Umberto Eco and others.

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