Il deserto dei tartari

tells the story of Giovanni Drogo's lifelong wait for a war in which he can achieve glory. For his first assignment, Lt. Drogo is posted at Bastiani, a remote fortress overlooking the desolate Tartar desert. He understands at once that his life there will be wasted, and he wishes to go back home. Many occasions occur to abandon the place, but he wills himself to pass them up. He spends his career waiting for the barbarian horde rumored to live beyond the desert. Without noticing, Drogo finds in his watch over the fort he has let years and decades pass and that, while his old friends in the city have had children, married, and lived full lives, he has come away with nothing except the solidarity with his fellow soldiers in their long, patient vigil. When the attack finally arrives, Drogo gets ill and the new chieftain of the fortress dismisses him. Drogo, on his way back home, dies alone in an inn.