The Moon and the BonfiresWinner of the 2003 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL The nameless narrator of The Moon and the Bonfires, Cesare Pavese's last and greatest novel, returns to Italy from California after the Second World War. He has done well in America, but success hasn't taken the edge off his memories of childhood, when he was an orphan living at the mercy of a bitterly poor farmer. He wants to learn what happened in his native village over the long, terrible years of Fascism; perhaps, he even thinks, he will settle down. And yet as he uncovers a secret and savage history from the war—a tale of betrayal and reprisal, sex and death—he finds that the past still haunts the present. The Moon and the Bonfires is a novel of intense lyricism and tragic import, a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature that has been unavailable to American readers for close to fifty years. Here it appears in a vigorous new English version by R. W. Flint, whose earlier translations of Pavese's fiction were acclaimed by Leslie Fiedler as "absolutely lucid and completely incantatory." |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 8 |
Section 3 | 13 |
Section 4 | 18 |
Section 5 | 22 |
Section 6 | 26 |
Section 7 | 31 |
Section 8 | 36 |
Section 18 | 85 |
Section 19 | 90 |
Section 20 | 94 |
Section 21 | 98 |
Section 22 | 103 |
Section 23 | 107 |
Section 24 | 112 |
Section 25 | 116 |
Section 9 | 41 |
Section 10 | 46 |
Section 11 | 51 |
Section 12 | 55 |
Section 13 | 60 |
Section 14 | 65 |
Section 15 | 70 |
Section 16 | 75 |
Section 17 | 80 |
Section 26 | 120 |
Section 27 | 124 |
Section 28 | 129 |
Section 29 | 134 |
Section 30 | 139 |
Section 31 | 145 |
Section 32 | 150 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
already America Arturo asked bank began Belbo better Bonfires called Canelli carriage changed Cinto coming couldn't dark dead didn't died door drink Emilia everything eyes face fair farm father fields flowers Gaminella Genoa girls give gone grapes grass half hands happened he'd head hear heard hills horse Irene Italy knew land laughing leave listening live looked Moon Mora morning never Nido night Nuto once passed Pavese pick play priest remembered road Salto Santa Santina seemed seen shouted Silvia sitting smell someone Sor Matteo started stayed stopped stories summer talk tell things thought told took town trees turned Valino villas vineyard voice waiting walked wanted watch who'd wine winter woman women woods yard young