I liked this novel: it's very well-written and translated. The plot is a bit old-fashioned, although what it does is to represent its times.

Pietro Spina (Peter Thorn in English) is the heir of a wealthy countryside family. However, he is a communist who fights for the cause - that has taken him to exile in Switzerland. He misses his country, so he comes back. After some time hiding himself around Italy, he gets sick.

I have got carried - the novel doesn't begin with Pietro Spina, it begins with Don Benedetto, an elderly priest who lives in a cave with his spinster sister Clara. He has been a teacher at a village school and is giving out a lunch to some of his students, now all adults with complicated lives in an unstable period of history - the fascits with Mussolini at its head have just taken power.

Released.

Victoria Line.