Praise for Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone
Winner of the 2008 Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History
“In this major study, Pugliese interweaves vivid anecdote, insightful commentary, and historical fact to produce a life story of the utmost power and consequence.”—Millicent Marcus, Chair of the Department of Italian Language and Literature, Yale University
“This is a remarkable work. Its clear and compelling style, expert scholarship, and
profound sensitivity combine to make Bitter Spring indispensable reading for all who are seriously interested in Silone’s life and times.”—Maria Nicolai Paynter, Professor of Italian, Hunter College, and author of Ignazio Silone: Beyond the Tragic Vision
“Pugliese’s biography retrieves Silone’s complex life and times with careful scholarship,
exemplary fairness, and deep sympathy.”—Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University
“Pugliese’s analysis of Silone is as astutely sensitive as his subject, one of the great
writers of the twentieth century, whose devotion to political justice is bestirred by the quest for spiritual salvation.”—John Patrick Diggins, author of Mussolini and Fascism:
The View from America
“Bitter Spring resonates with historical understanding and human compassion.”—Valdo Spini, President, Circolo Rosselli Foundation
“Pugliese has written a wonderfully engaging and illuminating biography of this very difficult man, Ignazio Silone—a great novelist, a tortured political militant, and, for many of us, a moral hero. ‘There is no single truth about Silone,’ his wife, Darina, said, ‘only many truths.’ This book is a truthful account of the many truths.” —Michael Walzer, coeditor of Dissent magazine
“Pugliese finally gives readers a mature account of a life that produced some of the twentieth century’s most powerful and widely translated literary art and political commentary. A much-needed work of literary and political scholarship.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)
“The first full English-language biography of the celebrated Italian novelist . . . rigorously argued . . . passionate and wise.”—Kirkus Reviews
“[A] solid and engaging biography”—Publishers Weekly
