The Time of Indifference

His first novel, Gli indifferenti (1929; Time of Indifference), is a scathingly realistic study of the moral corruption of a middle-class mother and two of her children. It became a sensation. Some of his more important novels are Agostino (1944; Two Adolescents); La Romana (1947; The Woman of…

, The Time of Indifference, 1953). Ignazio Silone was internationally known for anti-Fascist works written from Swiss exile, beginning with Fontamara (1930; Eng. trans., 1934); and Elio Vittorini wrote veiled criticism of the Fascist regime in a brilliant, Hemingway-like novel, Conversazione in Sicilia (1941; Conversation in…

…moral indifference, Gli indifferenti (1929; Time of Indifference). Carlo Bernari wrote a novel about the working classes, Tre operai (1934; “Three Workmen”); Cesare Pavese produced Paesi tuoi (1941; “Your Lands”; Eng. trans. The Harvesters); and Elio Vittorini wrote Conversazione in Sicilia (1941;