The Moon and the Bonfires
First edition (publ. Einaudi) | |
| Author | Cesare Pavese |
|---|---|
| Original title | La Luna e i Falò |
| Translator |
|
Publication date | 1950 |
| Award | PEN Translation Prize (2003) |
The Moon and the Bonfires (Italian: La Luna e i Falò) is a 1950 novel by the Italian writer Cesare Pavese. It is considered Pavese's best novel.
The first English language translation was undertaken by Louise Sinclair in 1952. A more recent translation by R. W. Flint, published in 2002, uses the arguably more correct translation of The Moon and the Bonfires, taking account of the use of the plural i Falò in the original Italian title.
The novel is set in the small town of Santo Stefano Belbo, in Piedmont, north-west Italy. The protagonist, known only by his nickname of Anguilla (Eel), has returned to his home town in the years immediately following the Second World War. He left twenty-five years earlier and had made his fortune in the United States. Returning to his home town, he finds many of the same smells and sights that filled his youth, but he also finds a town and its inhabitants that have been deeply changed by war and by the passage of time.