What sets Giorgio Bassani apart from other Italian writers of the period following World War II is above all his individualism. This quality, which he shares with only a few of his contemporaries, can be defined as confidence in his ability to deal free from any subordination to literary trends or ideologies with complex human relationships. His work is identified with the vicissitudes of Italian Jews under Fascist rule from 1922 to 1942. Yet Bassani's interest in the Jewish community of Ferrara, which constitutes the spirit and substance of his work, is not strictly ethnic and is hardly provincial in nature; it is an interest of a higher order that transcends ethnic and national boundaries. Although Bassani proudly affirms his Jewish identity, he is not a religious man and associates his Jewishness with the cultural, rather than the religious, aspect of his ethnicity. At the same time, while Bassani's Jewish...