[10/26/26] Guerra, Tonino: The Honey

World Poetry, paperback

Translated by Nathan Dunne

Publication Date: October 26, 2026

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Renowned for his collaborations with Tarkovsky, Fellini, and Antonioni, poet and screenwriter Tonino Guerra sets his story of two aging brothers in a surreal landscape shaped by memories of a vanishing rural world. Drawing on dialect from the Emilia-Romagna region and images from his childhood, Guerra paints a world of sacred bridges and weird locals, odd weather and ghostly animals, lonely hens and glasses brimming with rainwater. Guerra’s poetry went hand-in-hand with his screenwriting and, in his later career, the two began to fuse, reaching an apotheosis in his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky on the film Nostalghia. During production, the poet and director travelled throughout Italy, discussing art, literature, and cinema. These two great artists formed a deep intellectual and creative connection, a bond which mirrors that of the brothers in The Honey. Originally published in 1982, it is only the second of Guerra’s poetic works to appear in English translation.

The Honey is a book that becomes more beautiful with each passing year. —Italo Calvino

Guerra lays before us a text like a pan of water and what's conjured there is time—a species of time now strange to the modern eye. This time is embedded in objects, in fabric, in words, in flocks of sheep falling to dust that leave only a bleat for someone else's mouth to make. This is a wise book, wise like Vasko Popa, and fond, fond, strange and common like Donald Hall. Read it out loud with a bottle of wine at your elbow. Read it in the last month of someone else's life. —Jesse Ball

Guerra is one of the greatest writers of our time. —Howard A. Rodman

A writer with a questing, poetic sensibility. —Dennis Lim, The New York Times