---
product_id: 80070238
title: "Tartar Steppe"
brand: "canongate canons"
price: "14.25 OMR"
currency: OMR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/80070238-tartar-steppe
store_origin: OM
region: Oman
---

# Tartar Steppe

**Brand:** canongate canons
**Price:** 14.25 OMR
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Tartar Steppe by canongate canons
- **How much does it cost?** 14.25 OMR with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.om](https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/80070238-tartar-steppe)

## Best For

- canongate canons enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted canongate canons brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Tartar Steppe

## Images

![Tartar Steppe - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81sKUr3JunL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    An Important Allegory
  

*by A***S on Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2023*

The Tartar Steppe is ostensibly the story of a soldier posted to a distant fort whose life is wasted in fruitless vigilance for an attack which never comes during his active duty.But it’s more one of the great existentialist allegories of the twentieth century. The soldier, Giovanni Drogo, must first choose between an ordinary life surrounded by family and friends and a life led in pursuit of glory. The allure of gloriously defending the fatherland lures him to where he can no longer empathize with his family and former friends. Nature, that great source of commune for Romantics, is for Drago simply barren cliffs and unscalable mountains.Slowly, his soul accustoms itself to the previously unbearable life of soldiery. There are signs, such as needless and brutal slayings, that Drago is missing by his choices a good  answer to the mystery of life. And finally, old age catches up with him and one sees the existentialist theme that death puts an exclamation point on the futility of man’s quest for meaning.Written in Fascist Italy the book, while somber, is anything but depressing. I read it as a critique of what Mussolini’s culture offered to the educated Italian. As such, it finds the various paths of life wanting. But I think the author wanted to say we can think of better, more humane ways of living. I see it less as a critique of man’s existence and more of a critique of what mid-twentieth century Fascism had to offer.But it’s written in terse, allegorical prose that allows for more than one interpretation. For what it’s worth, it’s the favorite novel of public intellectual Nicholas Nassim Taleb (this is how I heard of it.) Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Wisps of hope in a field of melancholy
  

*by P***S on Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2012*

Well, I've finished The Tartar Steppe, and it's really an excellent book.  I'm glad I discovered it.  It's melancholy throughout most of the book, and it may be best suited to a reader around my age, over 40, but younger readers can certainly get a lot out of it too... heck maybe it can even be a wake up call to some.  It's very much a book about time, and the cruelty of the passage of time, lost opportunities, squandered moments and squandered years.  It's a medium-short book, and a quick read, yet it manages to give the impression of immensity of space and events and long stretches of time.It also manages to be suspenseful and mysterious, and the tone of mystery is sustained effectively throughout.  Hence, I won't spoil the narrative, but will confine myself to describing tone, style, impression.As far as the style, tone, I continued to think about it relative to the works of some other authors I admire.  Its similarity to Kafka includes the heavy anxiety and the arbitrary swings between hopefullness and despair... it has a lot of reversals, reversals of mood, reversals of the interpretation of events... in that way, it's certainly like Kafka.  It's more obsessive and committed to following a single theme than most of Kafka's works, and it's less absurd, but still has it's degree of absurdity, especially as expressed by the the absurd decisions and opinions expressed by the higher command of the army.Relative to Celine, it's pessimistic, but not nearly as pessimistic as Celine, and more sentimental.  Celine's pessimism is brutal and uncompromising, Buzzati's is more muted, but still full of dread, and contrasted by the sentimentalism of youth and age.  Honestly, though, I imagine Celine would himself have rejected Buzzati as wishy-washy... it's impossible to say for sure... but I resisted judging it that way, and let myself be sentimental and go along with the author's intent.I think it was the end of Chapter Six which cured me of my reservations and skepticism, and made me really feel what the author was after.  This is quite early in the thirty chapter book.  In it, Buzzati metaphorically describes the passage of life from youthful ambition to the disillusionment of the elders.Meanwhile, the opportunities for noble action are rare, ellusive, and easily lost if not acted on immediately.  Words which are contemplated but go unspoken also undermine our hope for a noble, significant life.  There's an almost mystical commitment to the idea that, if only the right words had been spoken at the right time, just a moment earlier before some sudden turn of events, things would have turned out quite differently for everyone.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Existentialist Masterpiece
  

*by M***G on Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2012*

I, like many, was led to this book by the reference in financier/mathematician/philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book, The Black Swan. In short, I would rank it in the top five books I have ever read.  Like a Camus novel, the language is sparse and monochromatic, reflecting the setting of the remote mountainous fort that Lieutenant Drago is assigned to help defend as a young man in his early twenties.  Fort Bastiani defends the northern frontier against the Tatars, a real or imaginary foe lost in the mists of time.  As a defense against the sameness and mind-numbingly boring routine at his desolate outpost, Drogo (like many others) constructs a fantasy of glory based on a future Tatar attack.  As the seasons and years pass by and Drago realizes that the Tatars are likely to never come, he still cannot bring himself to leave the cold comfort of Bastiani.  Fear of the unknown, of going back to the city that Drago grew up in but has now left him behind, keep him moored to Bastiani.  The obvious parable to life is the creeping mediocrity the vast majority of us accept.  Once it is acknowledged, it is almost always too late to redress, and that one glimpse of glory (in the form of defending against Tatars, real or imaginary), never comes.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/80070238-tartar-steppe](https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/80070238-tartar-steppe)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Oman*
*Store origin: OM*
*Last updated: 2026-01-22*