le desert des tartares

The Tartar Steppe (Italian: Il deserto dei Tartari, lit. 'The desert of the Tartars'), also published as The Stronghold (La fortezza), is a novel by Italian author Dino Buzzati, published in 1940. The novel tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo, and his life spent guarding the Bastiani Fortress, an old, unmaintained border fortress. The work was influenced by the 1904 poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by Constantine P. Cavafy. Stuart C. Hood translated the novel into English. The novel was ranked 29th on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century list.