The Moon and the Bonfire

by Cesare Pavese

Published 6 June 1974
After 20 years in America, a successful businessman returns to the rustic Piedmontese communities which were riven by fascism. Much has changed since the war, and still more would like to be forgotten and buried. Memories return to the narrator as he looks at the lives and sometimes violent fates of the villagers he has known since childhood, and rediscovers the poverty, ignorance, or indifference that binds them to the hills and valleys against the beauty of the landscape and the rhythm of the seasons. With simple poetic force, Pavese weaves separate strands of narrative together, bringing them to a stark and poignant climax. Part of the new look Peter Owen Modern Classics range featuring a logo crafted by graphic design icon Alvin Lustig.