Germany, France and Sweden

General Cork asked me
what Germany, France
and Sweden were really like.

"The Comte de Gobineau," I replied, "has described Germany as les Indes de l'Europe."

"France," I replied, "is an island surrounded by land."

"Sweden," I replied, "is a forest of fir trees in dinner jackets."

---From The Skin
Curzio Malaparte
David Moore, Translator
©2013, New York Review Books