v.
born July 23, 1908, Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
died Feb. 13, 1966, Milan
Italian novelist, translator, and critic.
He left school at age 17 and later learned English while working as a proofreader. He became, with Cesare Pavese , a pioneer in translating the works of U.S. and English writers into Italian. His novels of Neorealism mirror Italy's experience of fascism and the social, political, and spiritual agonies of the 20th century. Conversation in Sicily (1941), which clearly expresses his antifascist feelings, is his most important novel.