This is the story of resistance to fascism, told in the language of the wretched of the earth – the peasants of the small Italian village of Fontamara.
Silone’s novel inspired thousands to defy fascism in the 1930’s. Today the need for such defiance is with us again – and Silone’s message is as powerful and relevant as ever.

'A remarkable book! From the first line to the last it is directed against the fascist regime in Italy, against its lies, its violence, a book of passionate political propaganda. But revolutionary passion is raised here to such heights that it creates a truly artistic work. Fontamara is only a poor godforsaken village in the south of Italy. In the space of the book's two hundred pages, this name becomes a symbol of the whole Italian countryside, its poverty, its despair, but also its indignation.
Silone kknows the Italian peasantry remarkably well; the first twenty years of the author's life, according to his own words, were spent in Fontamara. Embellishment and sentimentality are foreign to him. He knows how to see life as it is, to generalise what he sees by means of the Marxist method and then to embody its generalisations in artistic images. The story is told by the peasants, cafoni, paupers themselves. The book deserves a circulation of millions of copies. But no matter what the attitude of the official bureaucracy may be towards works of truly revolutionary literature, Fontamara—we are convinced—will make its way. To assist the circulation of this book is the duty of every revolutionist.'
Leon Trotsky, on its first publication.

‘The most moving account of fascist barbarity I have ever read . . . it should be read to its merciless end’. Graham Greene

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