Curzio Malaparte, "La Pelle"

Synopsis

“I was tired of seeing men, animals, trees, the sky, the earth, the sea suffer, I was tired of their sufferings, of their stupid and useless sufferings, of their terrors, of their interminable agony. I was tired of having horror, tired of having pity. Ah, pity! I was ashamed of having pity. Yet I trembled with pity and horror."

Released in 1949, translated into all languages, a few million copies sold overall, “La Pelle” is a document that Italians can neither forget nor must ignore. With this book Malaparte remains among the greatest witnesses of his time.

Curzio Malaparte

Pseudonym of Kurt Erich Suckert, Italian journalist and writer born in Prato in 1898 and died in Rome in 1957. Fighter decorated for valor in the First World War, since the early 1920s he began literary activity from short stories to political thoughts, participating and also founding some periodicals. Director of the Press of Turin for two years from 1929, he was then a collaborator of the Corriere della Sera and correspondent from various fronts during the Second World War. He recounted the atrocities of the war in Kaputt (1944) and La pelle (1950). In his many experiences, the adhesion from republicanism to fascism, antifascism, pro-communism and ultimately the conversion to Catholicism.