Fontamara

Fontamara, the first novel in Ignazio Silone’s celebrated Abruzzo Trilogy, portrays the poor, embattled peasants in Abruzzo and their spirited yet doomed opposition to the ruthless expansion of fascism. Springing from the very soil of Silone’s experience, Fontamara soars to the heights of fable, with a seemingly mundane dispute over land and water rights inciting a rebellion against the defining threads of injustice and oppression in the fascist social fabric. A visceral depiction of upheaval and desolation during the reign of Mussolini, potent in its simplicity and unforgettable for its tragedy, Fontamara is an account of Fascism which “should be read to its merciless end” (Graham Greene).