Fontamara () is a 1933 novel by the Italian author Ignazio Silone, written when he was a refugee from Fascist Italy in Switzerland. It is Silone's first novel and it is regarded as his most famous work. It received worldwide acclaim and sold more than a million and a half copies in twenty-seven languages. It was first published in German translation in Switzerland in 1933; English translation was published by Penguin Books in September 1934. In 1980, it was adapted by Carlo Lizzani into an eponymous film.
Appearing on the eve of the Spanish Civil War, and published just a few months after Adolf Hitler came to power, when the world was beginning to take sides for or against Fascism, the novel had a galvanising effect on public opinion. Fontamara became "the very symbol of resistance", and is "widely agreed to have played a major role as a document of anti-Fascist propaganda outside Italy in the late 1930s", as it criticises the immorality and deceit of the Fascist party and its followers.
Fontamara is a fictional village in Marsica in the Abruzzo region; its name is derived from the Italian Fonte Amara (Bitter Stream). The people (the Fontamaresi) are poor, and the village is so remote that they are unaware of major social upheavals such as the rise of Fascism. There is a tremendous gap between the cafoni (peasants) who populate Fontamara and those who live in the city. The Fontamaresi work the earth to survive, turn to emigration as a means of economic improvement and are isolated, ignorant of events happening outside of the region and untouched by modernity and new technology. The Impresario, in stark contrast to the Fontamaresi, who have laboured for centuries to little avail, has quickly become the richest man in the region and embodies the power, authority and immorality of the Fascists. The Fontamaresi are exploited due to their naïvety and ignorance, the women are raped by the Blackshirts, Berardo Viola makes the ultimate sacrifice to allow the continued distribution of clandestine texts that spread the word about socialism and encourage rebellion against Fascism, and at the end the majority of the population are killed at the hands of the Government.
As with many rural novels, Fontamara discusses the various seasons, and seasonal duties, such as the grape harvest in the vineyards. It is a choral novel that focuses on the lives and points of view of the peasants of Fontamara, deprived of hope yet persistent and determined. It depicts solidarity amongst the peasants and the inequality of wealth between the agricultural workers and the professional classes in the city.
Background Silone was a founding member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1921. Silone became one of its covert leaders during the rule of the National Fascist Party. Ignazio's brother Romolo Tranquilli was arrested in 1929 for being a member of the PCI. Romolo was not a militant; he was, in Silone's words, 'a vaguely anti-fascist young man whose education and feelings were Catholic... Why did he confess he was a Communist? Why did he affirm his confession before the judge of a special tribunal which used his confession to condemn him to 12 years in prison? He wrote to me: "I have tried to act as I thought you would have in my place".' Romolo is thought to be the inspiration for the character of Berardo Viola who heroically sacrifices himself. Romolo died in prison in 1931 as a result of the severe beatings he received.
Silone left Italy in 1927 on a mission to the Soviet Union and settled in Switzerland in 1930. He was expelled from the PCI after declaring his opposition to Joseph Stalin and the leadership of the Comintern. He suffered tuberculosis and severe clinical depression and spent a year in Swiss clinics. As he recovered, he began writing Fontamara.
The novel was published in Zurich, Switzerland in Spring 1933 in German translation by Nettie Sutro as a book and in various German language Swiss periodicals. It was published in English by Penguin Books in September 1934. The first version in Italian appeared in Paris in 1933, though it was not published in Italy until 1945, when Silone prepared a much changed version for publication in Ernesto Buonaiuti's Roman newspaper 'Il Risveglio', and in 1947 another edition, with further revisions, was published by the editing house Lo Faro, Rome. In 1949 Mondadori published the novel, with still further modifications, and Silone made further stylistic changes in the 1953 Mondadori publication. An Esperanto version was published in 1939 in the Netherlands.L'esperanto in Italia. Alla ricerca della democrazia linguistica , Carlo Minnaja - ed. Il Poligrafo, 2007 , (pp. 90-91) Surprisingly, despite Silone's sharp break with Stalinism, the book was also published in Russian in 1935 in the Soviet Union, although it has never been republished in Russian afterwards.
The United States Army printed unauthorised versions of Fontamara, along with Bread and wine, and distributed them to the Italians during the Liberation of Italy in 1943−1945. Fontamara was distributed in November 1942 by the Penguin "Forces Book Club" and at British Prisoner of War camps during World War II by The Prisoners of War Book Service, which was launched in March 1943.
Plot One night, three people from Fontamara − a mother, father and son − tell an exiled writer about various things which had happened in their village. The writer decides to turn these into a book. The mother, father and son therefore become the narrators, though the majority of the book is narrated by the father. Cav. Pelino arrives in the village and tricks the cafoni into signing a petition that would deviate the watercourse away from Fontamara and thus away from the fields in which they work. The Fontamaresi are initially reluctant but they sign the blank pieces of paper he gives them. He places another sheet on the top of the pile which says The undersigned, in support of the above, supply their signatures spontaneously, voluntarily and with enthusiasm for Cav. Pelino ( p. 37).
On their way to the fields the men see workers deviating the watercourse. A boy delivers the news to the village and the women go to the regional capital city to protest. They don't realize that under the new regime the sindaco (mayor) is now the podestà and are taken to the house of the Impresario (a wealthy businessman) where, after much deliberation and fruitless trips elsewhere to find him, they are again deceived, because Don Circonstanza and the Impresario persuade them to accept an (impossible) three-quarter/three-quarter split of the water. The Impresario has also taken the tratturo (flat land owned by the community that is used for migration of sheep). Berardo Viola wants to emigrate to America but is prevented by new emigration laws. He had sold his land to Don Circonstanza to fund his emigration but now, with no land, is known as il cafone senza terra (the peasant without land) and is unemployed and, because of his pride, feels unfit to marry Elvira – a Madonna-like character whom he loves. ( p. 102). Cav. Pelino informs the government that the Fontamaresi are not cooperating (through ignorance) with the new Fascist regime and Innocenzo la Legge comes to impose a curfew, which will severely inhibit their work, and forbid talk of politics in public places. Berardo makes a speech against Innocenzo who is humiliated and who then spends the night with Marietta.
The cafoni are summoned to a meeting in Avezzano to discuss the matter of Fucino (an extremely fertile area of land), and are yet again deceived when instead of having a discussion, the land is taken from them and given to the rich ( p. 130). Some of them miss the truck home and meet a man who takes them to a tavern and offers to help them with their uprising and bring them weapons but, whilst he is gone, the Solito Sconosciuto approaches them to warn them they are being set up. Back at Fontamara, trucks of Fascist soldiers arrive and gang rape the women of Fontamara whilst the men are working in the fields. When the men return the Fascists question them, asking "Long Live who?" but the Fontamaresi do not know what answer they are supposed to give. The attackers see Elvira at the bell tower, mistake her for the Madonna and flee. Berardo and Giuva find Elvira and Matala at the top of the bell tower. Berardo picks Elvira up in his arms, takes her home and spends the night with her. In the morning he is even more determined to marry her, and Giuva thinks the only way Berardo could earn enough money to buy some land is by getting a job in town.
The Impresario buys the cafoni's wheat whilst it is still green for 120 lire a hundredweight, knowing that the prices are about to be increased under a new law to 170 lire and therefore makes a substantial profit which should have gone to the Fontamaresi. He also introduces wage reductions which reduce wages to 40% and 25% for land-betterment work. Don Circonstanza tricks them again, telling them that the water will be returned not after 50 years but after 10 lustri (5-year periods) ( p. 181-2), as the ‘’cafoni’’ do not know what a lustro is. The younger people of Fontamara want Berardo to rebel with them but he refuses. Teofilo, one of Berardo's young followers, hangs himself from the bell rope at the belltower. Berardo and the younger narrator go to Rome, looking for work. They enlist the help of lawyer Don Achille Pazienza, a guest at the Locanda del Buon Ladrone (The Good Thief's Inn) ( p.200) who also tries to exploit them. Whilst they are in Rome they find out through a telegram that Elvira has died. They meet the Solito Sconosciuto once more and go to a café where they are set up by the police and arrested for having clandestine papers against the Fascist regime. Both the young narrator and Berardo are tortured in prison and Berardo sacrifices himself, pretending he is the Solito Sconosciuto in order for the rebellion to continue and so that people hear about what has happened in Fontamara. The Solito Sconosciuto publishes an article, "Long Live Berardo Viola", which tells the story of Fontamara and he passes on printing equipment ("the duplicating machine") to the ‘’Fontamaresi’’ so they can start their own local anti-Fascist newspaper, which they call Che fare? (Italian title of Lenin's work What Is To Be Done?). The three narrators go to visit the wife's family in San Giuseppe to celebrate the son's release and distribute papers there. On their way home they hear gunshots, and a passerby informs them there's a war at Fontamara. Almost everyone has died "those who could, fled. Those who could, escaped". They then cross the border with the help of the Solito Sconosciuto.
Characters As a choral novel there is not one protagonist, but there are characters who are mentioned more than others such as Berardo, and the three narrators who tell the story.
The Three Narrators The book is narrated by Giuvà, his wife, and his son, who alternate the narration. The father is known as Giuvà, a dialect version of Giovanni. He is a poor peasant who searches for work. He is ignorant and easily duped like the other cafoni but doesn't react in the way that Berardo does, even though he admires what Berardo does. He is a friend to all and only fights with his brother-in-law over the water. He seems more and more surprised about the events that unfold in Fontamara, which had been a quiet town where nothing seemed to change.
The wife of Giuvà comes to be known as Matalè (dialect version of Maddalena). She wants to fight against injustice and thus walks to the city with the other women to protest about the water being redirected away from Fontamara. She shows courage and supports Elvira, her niece, when the women are being raped and the police do nothing. She often says "When strange things begin to happen, no one can stop them."