Unidentified Narrative Objects and the New Italian Epic examines ten key texts written after 2000 that use innovative ways to cross borders, whether those of style, genre and media or between real-life experiences and imagined ones. Four chapters of the book are devoted to these works, investigating elements of connection with twentieth-century literature. Willman argues that, although they might present features that are distinct from their Italian precursors, the texts do not constitute a break with postmodernism. Highlighting concepts of history and memory, Willman employs the term impegno, a term which can apply in different ways to different media, and which describes a political and ethical commitment that is not linked to a specific programme. The author also argues that while her chosen texts focus on real-life events, they also include fictional, imagined components.

In her Introduction, Willman contextualises these works, and demonstrates connections between them. Chapter 1, ‘‘‘Something is Happening in Italian Literature”: The Memorandum on the New Italian Epic and Twenty-First-Century Italian Literature’, analyses Wu Ming 1's work, which appeared online in 2008, offering some fascinating ideas on the twenty-first-century Italian cultural scene. Willman recognises the importance of the new term introduced in the text, ‘unidentified narrative objects’, but also stresses that this definition may impose boundaries. For instance, neither migrant writers nor writers from the ‘Young Cannibal’ movement of the 1990s were included in Ming 1's work and the characterisation of ‘epic’ conveys, for Willman, concerns about postmodernism's influence on the novel and on Italian intellectuals.

Chapter 2, ‘We are Going to Have to Be the Parents: Exploring Parental Legacies and Taking Responsibility’, examines Giuseppe Genna's Medium and Italia De Profundis (2008), Giancarlo De Cataldo's Nelle mani giuste (2018) and Laura Pugno's Sirene (2007), which highlight the parental responsibility of father to son as a significant example of impegno. Willman argues that since this concept of responsibility does not include motherhood and female involvement, a vital topic of our time, it offers an incomplete picture of the past. Specifically, she claims that misjudging the crucial value of motherhood is intolerable if one wants to scrutinise the past, its impact on the present, and how individuals interact with one another and the world.

Chapter 3, ‘On the Historical Novel’, investigates Antonio Scurati's Una storia romantica (2018), Antar Mohamed and Wu Ming 2's Timira (2012), and Helena Janeczek's Le rondini di Montecassino (2018) analysing their examinations of the past and their treatment of questions of identity, memory, and historiography. Willman revises an old debate about the connections between history and literary production which has characterised Italian literature since the nineteenth century. She argues that it is critical to reconsider well-known historical events in order to prevent them from mythologisation and to express the opportunities that have been lost in the way they are typically depicted. She also states that it is important to include the story of marginalised individuals who have been traditionally excluded from the historical account, as well as to re-examine much-commemorated historical events through a disregarded or marginalised lens.

Chapter 4, ‘Literature of Experience: Representing Reality in the Digital Age’, examines so-called ‘new realism’ texts, a genre including works such as Roberto Saviano's Gomorra (2006), Babsi Jones's Sappiano le mie parole di sangue (2007), and Igiaba Scego and Rino Bianchi's Roma negata (2014), which address, in Willman's opinion, the inadequate way that mainstream media narrate their subject matter. The author claims that these works suggest a relationship between text and reality that reflects the digital age. Furthermore, she argues that they employ a personal method to communicate a political message. This group of ‘unidentified narrative objects’ displays unusual configurations of fiction, non-fiction, documentary, poetic licence, and other elements, and employs storytelling to trigger critical examination and transformation.

In the Conclusion, Willman summarises the main points of her investigation, arguing that her subject texts offer ground-breaking methods to comprehend the past and relate with contemporary life, thereby deserving a place in the canon of Italian culture. The claim is one that scholars in the field will find thought-provoking and important. For me, this was a very stimulating and extremely pleasing collection to read. I found it well thought out, balanced, and comprehensible. Unidentified Narrative Objects and the New Italian Epic should appeal to a variety of readers – novice and experienced researchers alike, scholars in the fields of Italian Studies, Literary Studies and History, and anyone wanting to explore and understand contemporary Italian society and culture.