Emphasis Preaching Journal

In the summer of 1930, a penniless Italian living in exile in Switzerland, who adopted the pseudonym Igazio Silone, wrote a novel about peasant life under Fascism in his native region of the Abruzzi. Printed in 1933 on the eve of the Spanish Civil War and selling more than a million and a half copies, in 27 languages, Fontamara forced the world to take sides on the Franco regime, and influenced an entire generation of American intellectuals.