Speaks about “Clash of Civilizations” Nonfiction by "Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio" could be called a book about translation. It's the story of people from different cultures trying to live together in one place—a country, a city, a square, an apartment building, an elevator, even. Different customs, different languages, different foods. It takes place in Rome, in the neighborhood around Piazza Vittorio, where immigrants from all over the world have settled; the dominant culture, the host, so to speak, is, of course, Italian, and the immigrants have to learn to adapt, to follow its rules. But the Italians also have to learn to adapt, to understand and accept the immigrants. (Iqbal, the Bangladeshi grocer, says, "I can distinguish between racists and tolerant Italians: the racists don't smile at you and don't answer if you say ciao, or good morning, or good evening.") The main character, Amedeo, has attempted to translate himself literally from one culture to another—from the Algerian Ahmed to the Italian Amedeo. Can Ahmed, an Arab from Algeria, really become the Italian Amedeo? Having worked as a translator in Algeria, he is able to learn Italian well enough to speak "like a native"; he has married an Italian; and he knows Rome geographically better than a taxi-driver and historically better than a professor at the university. He has apparently succeeded in this translation; the Italians accept him as one of them. The other immigrants, who have, to varying degrees, been able to fit in, see him as a peculiarly sympathetic Italian, who is able to soothe their homesickness and solve their problems.