Giovanni Testori first presented himself to the public during World War II with two one-act plays, La morte (Death) and Un quadro (A Painting), published together in 1943, but his major work consists of prose, in the form of essays, novels, and short stories. His first attempt at narrative, Il dio di Roserio (The God of Roserio, 1954), started a cycle of novels and plays with the overall title I Segreti di Milano (Secrets of Milan), 1958-1961)--obviously inspired by the Mysteries of Paris (1842-1843) by Eugène Sue. Testori's style led critics to label him a verist or a naturalist. The setting of his novels is geographically limited to the Milanese hinterland, where the petite bourgeoisie and lumpenproletarians try to survive and improve their status through sport competitions but find themselves in a vicious cycle of prostitution, pornography, and underworld homo-sexuality. The usage of Milanese dialect becomes more...