# What is Dino Buzzati's The Tartar Steppe about? Canonical: https://zestasy.com/wiki/the-tartar-steppe/ Section: Zestasy Wiki > Books & ideas · Updated: 2026-10-14 · Publisher: Zestasy *Zestasy Wiki: our reference answers. Checked for facts and sources; less curated than the magazine.* The Tartar Steppe (Il deserto dei Tartari, 1940) follows Giovanni Drogo, a young officer posted to a remote fortress overlooking a desert, where the garrison waits year after year for an enemy that may or may not come. It is a short, haunting novel about waiting, routine and the way a life can slip by while you prepare for it to begin. Most readers recognise themselves in it, which is exactly why it unsettles. Dino Buzzati's novel was published by Rizzoli in 1940, under a title that means, literally, "the desert of the Tartars". According to [Wikipedia's entry on the novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe), its working title was *La fortezza*, The Stronghold, and it later appeared on *Le Monde*'s list of the hundred books of the century. It is one of those books that seems to be about a soldier and turns out to be about you. ## The premise, without spoilers Giovanni Drogo, a young officer, is sent to the Bastiani Fortress, an old outpost on a frontier nobody seems to care about. Beyond its walls lies a vast desert, and beyond that, perhaps, the Tartars: a threat spoken of with a mixture of dread and longing. Drogo means to leave as soon as he decently can. He does not quite manage it. The book follows what happens to his days, then his years, as the fort's routines close round him. The guards change, the seasons turn, and the desert stays empty, or seems to. We will stop there. The ending is best met without warning. ## What it is really about **Waiting.** The garrison is organised around an event that keeps not happening. The officers tell themselves that the great moment, the attack, the chance for glory, will justify everything. Anyone who has stayed in a job, a city or a plan because something better was surely about to arrive will feel the chill. **Routine.** The fort runs on rituals, passwords and timetables. They are comforting, and they are also how time disappears. Buzzati is very good at the way habit makes years feel like weeks. **Comradeship.** It is not a cold book. The bonds between the men, their small kindnesses and rivalries, give it warmth. Wikipedia's summary picks out this contrast between wasted time and friendship among soldiers as one of the novel's themes. **The edge of the real.** The fort, the frontier and the enemy are never placed on a map. That dreamlike vagueness is part of why the novel is often linked with the beginnings of magical realism; see our page on [what magical realism is](https://zestasy.com/wiki/what-is-magical-realism/). ## Why readers recognise themselves The novel's trick is that nothing extraordinary happens to Drogo. He is not a villain or a fool. He simply postpones, a little at a time, as most people do. Reading it in your twenties feels like a warning; in your fifties, like a mirror. That makes it one of the best books to [reread](https://zestasy.com/wiki/is-rereading-worth-it/) at different ages. It is not a gloomy lecture, though. It is atmospheric, often beautiful, and oddly gripping for a book in which the main action is looking at a horizon. ## How to read it - **In a few sittings.** It is short, and the mood builds best when you do not leave it for weeks. - **Notice time.** Keep an eye on how quickly the years start to pass. The pacing is the point. - **Do not hunt for allegory.** People have read the fort as many things. Let it be a fort first. - **Then talk about it.** It is a superb book club pick, because everyone brings their own fortress. ## Translations and the film The first English translation, by Stuart Hood, appeared in 1952 as *The Tartar Steppe*. In 2023 New York Review Books published a new translation by Lawrence Venuti under the title *The Stronghold*, the book's original working title. Both are in print; a newer translation is usually the easier read for a first encounter. Valerio Zurlini's 1976 film *The Desert of the Tartars*, with Jacques Perrin as Drogo, Max von Sydow and Vittorio Gassman, is handsome and faithful in spirit, though it trims much of Drogo's life away from the fort. Read the book first. ## FAQ ### Is it a war novel? Not really. It is set in an army, but it is about time and hope rather than fighting. People who dislike war novels often love it. ### Is it depressing? It is melancholy rather than bleak, with real tenderness. Many readers finish it oddly energised, determined not to wait for their own Tartars. ### Where should you go next? If you like its mood of time and return, try our page on Pavese's [The Moon and the Bonfires](https://zestasy.com/wiki/the-moon-and-the-bonfires/), another short Italian novel about what the years do to a life. ## Sources - [Wikipedia: The Tartar Steppe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe) ## Related - [How do you get better at waiting?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/getting-better-at-waiting/) - [What are great short novels you can read in a weekend?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/short-novels-for-a-weekend/) - [Is it worth rereading books?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/is-rereading-worth-it/) - [What is magical realism?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/what-is-magical-realism/) - [What is Cesare Pavese's The Moon and the Bonfires about?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/the-moon-and-the-bonfires/) - [All Books & ideas answers in the Wiki](https://zestasy.com/wiki/#books)