From Elaine Pasquali
author: Silone, Ignazio
Fontamara
This novel, set in a poverty-stricken village in southern Italy under Mussolini’s regime, is a classic study of the human condition. The village is being legally robbed of a vital resource, water, that puts their already marginal exhistance at further jeapody. This novel is both heart wrenching and earthly humorous. It’s meaning can be applied to any people, at any period of history, who are rendered powerless by their socio-economic-political environment. Fontamara is truly a novel that transcends time.