Novel
Fontamara
Ignazio Silone · 1933
Synopsis
Fontamara is a poor village in the Marsica, in Abruzzo. Three of its inhabitants, Giuvà, his wife Matalena and their son, tell what happened to the cafoni, the landless peasants: a rich businessman, known as the Impresario, has diverted to his own profit the water that irrigated their fields. They go to complain, and, deception after deception, the notables and the authorities of the regime dupe and despise them.
Context
The author wrote the novel around 1930, in Switzerland, where he was receiving treatment. The book first appeared in German, in spring 1933, in Zurich, from Oprecht & Helbling, in a translation by Nettie Sutro; an Italian version appeared in Paris the same year, but the book was not published in Italy until after the war. In French, it is available in Grasset's Cahiers rouges; in English, Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher translated it under the title “Fontamara”.
Who it is for
A short novel, told by peasant voices that take turns, and which can be read in one sitting.
Prizes and reception
The book appeared in English as early as 1934, with Penguin, a year after its first edition.
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