«The first full presentation and critical assessment in English of one of Italy’smost original and thought-provoking writers of the past fifty years. The bookconvincingly shows how Vassalli’s characters and milieus are distinctly Italian,and yet speak the universal language of desire frustrated and crushed, indifferent historical settings, by the brutality of institutions and power.» (Lino Pertile, Research Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures,Harvard University)«This sweeping study of Sebastiano Vassalli, one of European literature’s mosticonoclastic public intellectuals, is a retrospective of his multifaceted oeuvreand Italy’s tumultuous politics and culture from the late 1960s onward. MerielTulante’s deft and timely analysis brings together literary studies and culturalhistory to reveal the ethos of his unsparing and polemical lens on humansociety.» (Letizia Modena, Associate Professor of Italian, Vanderbilt University)
