Widely read and translated, Luigi Malerba published the first of his more than twenty books of fiction in 1963. Working as a young screenwriter in Cinecittà, the large motion-picture studio outside of Rome, Malerba met and was encouraged to write La scoperta dell'alfabeto (The Discovery of the Alphabet), a collection of short stories about the peasants of his native Emilia, by Ennio Flaiano, the multifaceted author of novels, plays, films, and documentaries. Malerba's early experience in film, television, and advertising undoubtedly influenced his vivid prose style, especially his use of fast-paced dialogue, in his subsequent career. While this first collection was well received critically, it was Il serpente (1966; translated as The Serpent, 1968) and especially Salto mortale (1968; translated as What Is This Buzzing, Do You Hear It Too", 1969) that established Malerba's reputation as one of the major Italian writers of the time both nationally, on account of the novelty...