num_pages: 560
description: In Hollywood, Cary Grant has grown weary of cinema's constant glamour, but Her Majesty's Secret Service will break his malaise with a bizarre diplomatic mission. In Naples, Lucky Luciano fixes horse races and launches the global heroin trade. And in Bologna, a bartender searches for true love and his missing communist father.Set during the height of the Cold War - with the world divided into East and West - 54 features Italian partisans, KGB agents, Parisian lowlifes, and cameos by David Niven, Marshal Tito, and Grace Kelly. Wu Ming brings us a cinematic romp that is by turns edgy social satire and modern comic send up.
language: English
title: 54
titlecomplete: 54
characters: Josip Broz Tito, Nicola Capponi, Steve 'Cemento' Zollo, Robespierre 'Pierre' Capponi, Lucky Luciano (The Prince of Beverly Hills), Ivan Aleksandrovič Serov, Salvatore 'Kociss' Pagano, Cary Grant
genres: Historical, Novels, Italian Literature, Thriller, Italy, Noir, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery
ratings_count: 2002
places: Naples, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Gramovac, Yugoslavia, Trieste, Palm Springs, California, Moscow, USSR
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: PEN Translation Prize
category: Shaun Whiteside
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt