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Down and Out in England and Italy
A wry, filthy, and unputdownable look at class and national identity today.
Alberto Prunetti arrives in the UK, the twenty-something-year-old son of a Tuscan factory worker who has never left home before. With only broken English, his wits, and an obsession with the work of George Orwell to guide him, he sets about looking for a job and navigating his new home.
In between slaving in pizzerias and cleaning toilets up and down the country, he finds his place among the British precariat. His comrades form a polyglot underclass, among them an ex-addict cook, a cleaner in love with opera, an elderly Shakespearean actor, Turks impersonating Neapolitans to serve pizzas, and a cast of petty criminals ‘resting’ between bigger jobs.
Stuck between a past haunted by Thatcher and a future dominated by Brexit, Down and Out in England and Italy is a hilarious and poignant snapshot of life on the margins in modern-day Britain.
Alberto Prunetti arrives in the UK, the twenty-something-year-old son of a Tuscan factory worker who has never left home before. With only broken English, his wits, and an obsession with the work of George Orwell to guide him, he sets about looking for a job and navigating his new home.
In between slaving in pizzerias and cleaning toilets up and down the country, he finds his place among the British precariat. His comrades form a polyglot underclass, among them an ex-addict cook, a cleaner in love with opera, an elderly Shakespearean actor, Turks impersonating Neapolitans to serve pizzas, and a cast of petty criminals ‘resting’ between bigger jobs.
Stuck between a past haunted by Thatcher and a future dominated by Brexit, Down and Out in England and Italy is a hilarious and poignant snapshot of life on the margins in modern-day Britain.
160 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2021
189 people want to read
About the author
Alberto Prunetti
44 books74 followersAlberto Prunetti was born in Piombino (Italy), a Tuscan steel town in 1973. A former pizza chef, cleaner, and handyman, he is also the author of a working class trilogy of novels and has translated works by George Orwell, Angela Davis, David Graeber, Bhaskar Sunkara and many others. Since 2018 he has directed the Working Class books series for the publisher Edizioni Alegre. He is a regular contributor of Il Manifesto, Jacobin Italia, Wu Ming's Giap and other magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 8, 2022
If you've ever thought Down and Out in Paris and London would be a much better book if it was set in Bristol, Livorno and Dorset and rewritten by a working class Italian communist with a taste for football, scatology and codeine linctus - and who hasn't - then is this the one for you.
June 19, 2025
Anarchic, fun, and chaotic. Definitely worth checking out.
January 9, 2023
3.5 Stars!
This starts off fairly weakly and I wasn’t too impressed by the opening chapter, but by the time we get into the second one, it’s like a different story and the quality shoots up. This is a peculiar creature as the chapters seem to veer between dull and really interesting, and overall I can only imagine the reason for the wild inconsistencies is that certain chapters were written at very different times and then have been brought together at a later date, it certainly reads like that.
But I have to say I quite enjoyed this and found myself warming to Prunetti and really rooting for him as his story went on and this ended up becoming a strangely poignant and deceptively powerful experience about the false promises of modern day university education in the age of hyper driven Neo-Liberalism, as well as exposing the banality and hardship of demeaning low-paid, low-status work when you are a stranger in a strange land.
This starts off fairly weakly and I wasn’t too impressed by the opening chapter, but by the time we get into the second one, it’s like a different story and the quality shoots up. This is a peculiar creature as the chapters seem to veer between dull and really interesting, and overall I can only imagine the reason for the wild inconsistencies is that certain chapters were written at very different times and then have been brought together at a later date, it certainly reads like that.
But I have to say I quite enjoyed this and found myself warming to Prunetti and really rooting for him as his story went on and this ended up becoming a strangely poignant and deceptively powerful experience about the false promises of modern day university education in the age of hyper driven Neo-Liberalism, as well as exposing the banality and hardship of demeaning low-paid, low-status work when you are a stranger in a strange land.
December 30, 2022
A book to read on the train, while your carriage travels on '108-metre-long steel bars'.
Everyone will remember specific passages, Bourdieu fans will be happy to see the concept of habitus swarming on every page, so it will be ‘bread for your teeth’. I will remember this. Italians good people! no matter where you are, will always welcome you into their family. There will always be room for a compatriot, after all, if we don't help each other? I beg your pardon? A work contract? But we are family, our word is more than enough excuse. A hard, raw, no-holds-barred tale. Flowing to read but dry at the same time. A portrait of the changing Italian working class and the reality of those seeking work abroad. Each with their own story, experiencing different exploitations.
“Everything was changing around me. Factory work orders like my dad had lost their battle ten years before. […] There were no bosses and master anymore, only ‘entrepreneurs’. […] University as an institution was chasing, buckling under the pressure of the market: the ivory tower was crumbling. The profiteers who once studied working-class movements now taught the semiotics of luxury.” Pag 61.
Everyone will remember specific passages, Bourdieu fans will be happy to see the concept of habitus swarming on every page, so it will be ‘bread for your teeth’. I will remember this. Italians good people! no matter where you are, will always welcome you into their family. There will always be room for a compatriot, after all, if we don't help each other? I beg your pardon? A work contract? But we are family, our word is more than enough excuse. A hard, raw, no-holds-barred tale. Flowing to read but dry at the same time. A portrait of the changing Italian working class and the reality of those seeking work abroad. Each with their own story, experiencing different exploitations.
“Everything was changing around me. Factory work orders like my dad had lost their battle ten years before. […] There were no bosses and master anymore, only ‘entrepreneurs’. […] University as an institution was chasing, buckling under the pressure of the market: the ivory tower was crumbling. The profiteers who once studied working-class movements now taught the semiotics of luxury.” Pag 61.
January 7, 2022
It's not an easy or pleasant book. It's a book about blue collar and manual works and it's harsh even if I appreciated the dark humour.
There's plenty of politics and the author is not shy to talk about his ideas.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
There's plenty of politics and the author is not shy to talk about his ideas.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
September 12, 2025
A great ode to the working class and a manifesto for the importance of community. I was really impressed with this as a work of autobiographical fiction. The Margaret Thatcher bashing was incredibly clever. I loved the sci-fi elements amongst the reality. His story made me angry and determined and hopeful.
February 3, 2022
Supposedly autobiographical, but the author surely can’t have been as unpleasant as the protagonist appears to be. A quick read, lacking the insights I’d hoped for: maybe it works better for young Italian readers. George Orwell would indeed be rotating subterraneanly.
March 8, 2022
It's not Orwell. But then, very little is.
February 19, 2024
3.5 stars
June 28, 2025
can't walk into a pizza shop the same way i used to before
October 24, 2025
Prunetti is describing his own story (?) as a young guy in England. Having come from a steel producing village in Italy, he doesn’t come into a good job but into low salaried, often disgusting restaurant and cleaner jobs that others won’t take. In the finest tradition of George Orwell’s “Down and out in Paris and London” we are presented with an I narrator. It is a five star read.
Anyone who wants to know how the English Dream can become somewhat a seedy nightmare and how Mac jobs and their conditions can mar the experience of coming to the land of supposedly milk and honey. Everything seems to be glittering gold at first… but then the truth is seen by someone who comes from a Mediterranean country, go and buy this book. Give it a read!
The original title was 108 metres which is a reference to the steel beams this small Italian village was producing.
Five stars. may 6th 2023
Just reread it. oct 24th 2025 it is an important book. definite 5 stars.
Anyone who wants to know how the English Dream can become somewhat a seedy nightmare and how Mac jobs and their conditions can mar the experience of coming to the land of supposedly milk and honey. Everything seems to be glittering gold at first… but then the truth is seen by someone who comes from a Mediterranean country, go and buy this book. Give it a read!
The original title was 108 metres which is a reference to the steel beams this small Italian village was producing.
Five stars. may 6th 2023
Just reread it. oct 24th 2025 it is an important book. definite 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews