Fontamara

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Fontamara (original title: Fontamara ) is a novel by the Italian writer Ignazio Silone .

Fontamara is the name of a fictional village in Abruzzo and the location of the action. The book was written in 1930 while in exile in Switzerland and a translation was published in Switzerland in 1933. In 1961, Silone revised the text. The German translation of this edition was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 1962 .

action

Three villagers - father, mother and son - spent one night reporting to the exiled writer about the events in the village of Fontamara, who then decided to write down these stories. Fontamara is in the periphery, remote in the high mountains. The villagers still live a meager life there. Few of the achievements of modern life penetrate the mountain world. The church messenger is always driven away by force.

The meager income is just enough to live on, many residents seek their salvation in emigration . The burgeoning fascism changed the life of the cafoni , as the uneducated mountain farmers are called. First of all, labor migration is restricted, then a rich factory owner who has achieved office and dignity as a fascist decides to divert the course of a stream that is used to irrigate the fields in his favor. The cafoni are left with nothing. The lawyer, who - otherwise always looking for his own advantage - stood up for them, becomes an accomplice of the factory owner. Fascist groups eventually terrorize the village, rape and humiliate the villagers. Therefore the strongest and most determined villager decides to go to Rome together with the son of the reporter. He made contact with the anti-fascist resistance, but was soon arrested with his contact and his travel companion and tortured to death. The son finally returned to Fontamara and founded a resistance newspaper with the residents.

filming

The book was made into a film by Carlo Lizzani in 1980 .

literature

  • Ignazio Silone: Fontamara. Cologne 1962.

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