{{short description|2013 novella by Antonio Tabucchi}} {{Infobox book | name = For Isabel | image = File:For_Isabel.jpg | image_size = | border = | alt = | caption = | author = Antonio Tabucchi | title_orig = Per Isabel | orig_lang_code = it | translator = Elizabeth Harris | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Italy | language = Italian | subject = | genre = | publisher = Feltrinelli | pub_date = 9 October 2013 | english_pub_date = 5 September 2017 | media_type = | pages = 119 | isbn = 9788807030635 }} '''''For Isabel: A Mandala''''' ({{langx|it|Per Isabel. Un mandala}}) is a novella by the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi, published posthumously by Feltrinelli in 2013.
==Plot== The Polish writer Tadeus Slowacki searches Lisbon after traces of Isabel, a young and enigmatic communist he once knew and who disappeared during the ''Estado Novo'' period. He meets and interviews various people who tell stories that give clues about who Isabel was and what may have happened to her. As the story goes on, the perspectives become increasingly metaphysical. The structure of the novel, with its layers of storytelling around a central character, is inspired by the ''mandala'', a tool used in several religions to aid meditation.<ref name=":0" />
==Reception== ''The Times Literary Supplement'' described the book as a "postmodern saturnalia of doubt and fractured self" and "not just a satisfactory rounding-off of Tabucchi's career, but a fantastic coda to it".<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Graydon |first=Samuel |date=8 December 2017 |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/fiction/antonio-tabucchi |title=Turning in the gyre |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The Times Literary Supplement |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref> ''Publishers Weekly'' wrote that the structure is similar to Dante Alighieri's ''Inferno'' and Akira Kurosawa's film ''Rashomon'', describing it as "history recalled as though in a dream", written in "elegiac prose".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780914671800 |title=For Isabel: A Mandala |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=31 July 2017 |access-date=21 September 2024 }}</ref> ''Kirkus Reviews'' placed the book in the same tradition as Hermann Hesse's stories inspired by Eastern religions and wrote that although the themes merely are sketched out, there is "a satisfying richness to the whole".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/antonio-tabucchi/for-isabel/ |title=For Isabel |newspaper=Kirkus Reviews |date=1 July 2017 |access-date=21 September 2024 }}</ref>
The English translation by Elizabeth Harris received the 2018 Italian Prose in Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://literarytranslators.org/awards/ipta/ipta-winners |title=Italian Prose in Translation Award Winners |publisher=American Literary Translators Association |access-date=21 September 2024 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.lafeltrinelli.it/per-isabel-mandala-libro-antonio-tabucchi/e/9788807030635?srsltid=AfmBOorpRaBVbVnGt3IJr0tzTU0_CDKqvxx5Brb9dCTvhDkIXF8oJtLh Feltrinelli] * [https://archipelagobooks.org/book/for-isabel-a-mandala/ Archipelago Books]
{{Antonio Tabucchi}}
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Category:2013 Italian novels Category:Novels by Antonio Tabucchi Category:Novels set in Lisbon Category:Italian novellas Category:Novels published posthumously Category:Italian mystery novels Category:2010s novellas