The Tiger And Snow Dts Es

attilio is a poet and a lecturer in poetry at the university for foreigners in rome we are in 2003 the war in iraq has not yet started though the whiff of conflict is already in the air attilio seems to live entirely in his own world shut off in an ivory tower that is penetrated only by the sublime voices of those poets he loves the most he has a certain literary reputation he has recently published his latest collection of verse the tiger and the snow that has been well received by both critics and the poetry reading public current events scarcely touch him at night he dreams only of a woman he longs to marry the woman s name is vittoria and in real life she alas wants nothing to do with him indeed she is thoroughly aggravated by the constant attentions of this incurably cheerful man who never ceases to declare his undying love for her attilio follows her around lies in wait for her promises her eternal happiness and generally flings himself at her feet but the more he presses his case the more she resists she too is in the literary world at present she is writing the biography of the leading iraqi poet who having lived for many years in paris is now preparing to return to his home in baghdad if a war breaks out he wants to be amongst his own people vittoria and attilio briefly meet him in rome