Memoir from a Swiss Prison

Relatively unknown outside of academic communities, exiled author and progressive thinker Ignazio Silone has played an important role in modern history. A founding member of the Italian Communist Party (PSI), he was expelled from the Communist International in 1927 for refusing to back Stalin in his vilification of Trotsky. Forced into exile in Switzerland, Silone took to writing—novels, plays, satirical essays and theoretical works—while at the same time funneling money to colleagues in the anti-Fascist resistance in Italy. In this memoir, written in 1942 while in prison (and nicely translated here by Pugliese, currently at work on a biography of Silone), Silone tries to clear his name from nasty charges made against him: of trying to foment violence and subjugate sovereign states. He does not seek absolution—he considers imprisonment to be an honor and a sign of devotion—but rather an honest rendering of history. What he produces is more than a mere defense; it is a trenchant comment on the needs and prerequisites for a progressive, democratic Europe. Often compared to postwar thinkers like Albert Camus and André Malraux, Silone—recipient of the Jerusalem Prize and twice considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature—is a salient critic, whose words are as relevant now as ever. (Mar.)