Among the most intellectually engaging writers to emerge after World War II, Dante Troisi has used his novels, plays, and short stories to draw a disturbing picture of social and cultural life in southern Italy after the war. In the tradition of Elio Vittorini, Ignazio Silone, and Carlo Levi, Troisi confronts many of the prejudices and traditional attitudes that have retarded social and economic progress in the South. His work shows a constant interest in the human condition as represented by insecure, alienated individuals who embody the modern moral and spiritual crisis. Troisi's dry style has been likened to that of Albert Camus and Anton Checkov; yet it would be more accurate to see him as a worried moralist deeply concerned with the social and ideological tensions.

The roots of Troisi's disillusionment with Italian society stem from the expectations that the writers of his generation nurtured in the...