"The Confines of the Shadow" is a literary work by Italian-Libyan author Alessandro Spina, comprising a sequence of novels and short stories that chronicle the transformations of the Libyan city of Benghazi from 1912 to 1964. Through a diverse cast of characters, including Ottoman officials, Sanussi aristocrats, and Italian officers, Spina explores Italy's colonial experience in Libya, from the euphoria of conquest to the fall of Fascism and the country's subsequent independence in the 1950s. This multi-generational epic sheds light on the interaction between East and West and the impact of colonialism on national identity.
**About the Author:**
Alessandro Spina is the pen name of Basili Shafik Khouzam, born in 1927 in Benghazi, Libya, to a Syrian Christian family. After studying in Italy, he managed the family textile factory in Libya until his exile to Lombardy following Gaddafi's revolution. Throughout his career, he wrote novels and stories based on Libyan history, highlighting cultural interactions and tensions arising from colonialism. He passed away in 2013.
