Saverio Strati is a writer from southern Italy who uses that part of the country as a metaphor for the human condition. His South is not a static reality defined once and for all but is in constant ferment, a convulsion of torn passions. Although his work is rooted in his native Calabria, he avoids the folklore and other popularized forms of southern culture. Instead he directs his attention to daily events, filled with the sediment of years of frustration, humiliation, and rebellion. Strati's typical character is not resigned to living in the state of suffering and destitution experienced by his ancestors; he is a product of the proletariat who is conscious of his class identity and seeks alternatives to traditional social and political roles. Since the late 1980s Strati's attention has shifted from the workers to intellectuals who seek personal truths outside the traditional sources of ideology...