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On the Spine of Italy: A Year in the Abruzzi
by Harry Clifton
The Abruzzo Trilogy: Bread and Wine, Fontamara, and the Seed Beneath the Snow
(Click here for an excerpt, as well as price and order information)
Bread and Wine
(Click here for an excerpt, as well as price and order information)
The author and his wife became the first outsiders to live for a year as part of this small Italian community.
They became embroiled in the politics of village life, learning about modern Italy, the relationships with
Church and State, emigration effects, and how an old way of life is under constant threat from encroaching
towns.
(Click here for
price and order information)
by Ignazio Silone
The classic saga of fascist Italy, in one volume for the first time. The desolate, impoverished mountain region of the Abruzzo during Mussolini's reign provides the backdrop for the three greatest novels of Ignazio Silone, one of the century's most important writers. Bread and Wine introduces the antifascist Pietro Spina, who pretends to be a priest but is reluctantly forced to honor the spiritual obligations of his role. The political fable Fontamara shows villagers battling landowners over water. The Seed Beneath the Snow continues Pietro Spina's story. Together, these revolutionary works create an indelible image of ordinary people struggling against overwhelming events. "One of the most truly . . . significant writers of our time." - The Nation
by Ignazio Silone
Amazon Reader's Review: 'The late Ignazio Silone, the author of Bread and Wine, stated that he "would willingly pass [his] life writing and rewriting the same book -- that one book which every writer carries within him, the image of his own soul..." Bread and Wine is just that -- a beautiful reflection of a man's soul. Using humor, easy language and insights into the Italian fascist regime, Silone tells the story of all humanity's search for truth. In the figure of Pietro Spina, a Socialist political activist, the reader is led to ask questions about politics, relationships, and faith. The irony is that Spina has just returned from exile and must remain incognito -- as a priest, of course. Through his experiences, he asks many difficult questions about his Socialist party, his church, and himself. In the end, he is left to bring together who he is as the "priest" Don Paolo and who he was as the anti-political activist Pietra Spina. He must learn to "let the inner and the outer man meet" (Plato).'
