Le Bosco Ancestral (The Ancestral Woods, 2006, 222 pp.) is a collection of 35 stories written in Interlingua by Neapolitan author Onofrio Notarstefano and illustrated by his son Fulvio. The unifying theme of the stories is intolerance on the basis of culture, race, religion, and the like. Intolerance, the author writes, leads to an endless repetition of the genocide against the Neanderthals.
Told in fable form, the stories are intended "for adults and, with the guidance of parents and educators, also for children," because "this has been the function of the fable for as long as the oral tradition has lived." The stories admonish readers as to the effects of a hostile coexistence and search for a solution. The author leaves the form of that solution, however, to social scientists. For his part, he transforms the problems that "agitate" him into "a fantastic and symbolic vision."
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