Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959. The award citation states, 'his lyrical poetry with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times'. Jack Bevan's authentic translation of Quasimodo’s work fills a significant gap in our knowledge of 20th-century European literary poetry. 'The poetry has a texture like silk, yet the elegance and syntactic clarity with which Jack Bevan worked to bring these poems to English-speaking readers allows them to stand as poems in their own right,' wrote Peter Scupham about the translation of Quasimodo's last poems, 'Debt and Credit'.

Quasimodo's powerful and passionate writing continues to testify to the human - and inhuman - realities that have shaped our modern world. Italian critic Giuliano Dego wrote, 'To bear witness to the history of man with all the urgency of a particular time and place, and to teach the lesson of courage, that was Quasimodo's poetic work.'

Pages: 248, Dimensions: 13.5x13.5cm