Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Anti-Fascists
On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Roman-born Alberto Moravia (1907−90)
was banned from writing by Mussolini and, together with his wife, Elsa Morante
(1912−85), was forced into hiding for a year. The alienated individual and the emptiness
of fascist and bourgeois society are common themes in his writing. In La Romana (The
Woman of Rome; 1947) he explores the broken dreams of a country girl, Adriana, as she
slips into prostitution and theft.
The novels of Elsa Morante are characterised by a subtle psychological appraisal of her
characters and can be seen as a personal cry of pity for the sufferings of individuals and
society. Her 1974 masterpiece, La Storia (History), is a tough tale of a half-Jewish wo-
man's desperate struggle for dignity in the poverty of occupied Rome.
Taking a similarly anti-fascist line, Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893−1973) combines murder
and black humour in his classic whodunnit, Quer Pasticciaccio Brutto de Via Merulana
(That Awful Mess on Via Merulana; 1957). Although the mystery is never solved, the
book's a brilliant portrayal of the pomposity and corruption that thrived in Mussolini's
Rome.
Writing Today
Born in Rome in 1966, Niccolò Ammaniti is the best known of the city's current crop of
writers. In 2007 he won the Premio Strega, Italy's top literary prize for his novel, Come
Dio comanda (As God Commands). He's probably best known for Io Non Ho Paura (I'm
Not Scared; 2001), a soulful study of a young boy's realisation that his father is involved
in a child kidnapping.
Another name to look out for is Alessandro Piperno, whose critically acclaimed novels
have earned him comparisons with Marcel Proust and Philip Roth. His bestselling debut
novel Con le peggiore intenzioni (The Worst Intentions; 2005) won the 2007 Premio Vi-
areggio and in 2012 he went one better and won the Premio Strega for his Jewish family
saga, Inseparabili (Inseparable).
Emanuele Trevi, a Rome-born critic and writer, has also been making a mark. His most
high-profile novel is Qualcosa di Scritto (Something Written), a complex, quasi-autobio-
graphical story of a writer's experience working in a Roman cultural foundation. In 2012,
Trevi won the European Union Prize for Literature.
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