by Tobias Jones, published by Faber and Faber. Hardback, 266 pages, €26.85
Italy has always had a strange effect upon the English. When the sexually and emotionally repressed young men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries went there as part of the Grand Tour, the warmth, the exuberance, the lust for life that they found there elevated the Italian life-style to an almost mythical ideal. Byron and Shelley were the fore-runners, followed by countless young aristos. Even in the twentieth century E. M. Forster ploughed the same furrow - Italy was a country where you could connect, both with yourself and with society. It became Italy the metaphor.

For this metaphor to work in the field, it was necessary to see Italians in a particular way - they had to be like children: gesticulating, laughing, carefree creatures whose life in the sun called for nothing more than sensual experiences. There's no doubt that an element of this exists in Italians, perhaps slightly more than it does in Nordic countries, but it would be a very foolish person who believed that it represented the sum total of a race. Which is why Tobias Jones's book called 'The Dark Heart of Italy' works well on one level and not so well on another.

There's an element of hubris when young journalists spend a year in Italy and then decide they now know enough to write a book containing broad sweeps of generalisations about a country. In a way it's charming that they should suppose a country could open out its innermost thoughts so easily, especially one whose regions are as different from one another as they are from neighbouring countries. Indeed until the 1860s that just what they were, different countries with different cultures, customs and language. Unification is still a young and tender plant in Italy and national stereotypes tend not to hold.

What Tobias Jones does well is observe. He has noticed that all is not as it seems - hence the book's title - but then that's true of most countries. His eye for detail is good, his frustrations with Italian bureaucracy mirrors my own, he notes the corruptible system of government, the chaotic legislature, the favours and contra-favours that form invisible bonds and he often repeats the theme of Italians belittling their own culture and customs. He shouldn't believe them; this is as much show as Cagliostro. They feel free to say this because deep down they believe it's not true, it's the very strength of their self-belief that allows their self-deprecation.

Certainly he's done his research well. The book covers most aspects of daily life from family and home to the forum of the public spaces. If his quotes are anything to go by he's read broadly both in English and in Italian. 'The Dark Heart of Italy' marks an interesting shift in the growing English language literature on Italy.