Translated by Archibald Colquhoun and revised by Martin McLaughlin 'Has the
stark black-and-white quality of the classic Italian neo-realist films' The
New York Times Pin is a bawdy, adolescent cobbler's assistant, both
arrogant and insecure who - while the Second World War rages - sings songs
and tells jokes to endear himself to the grown-ups of his town -
particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as the town's
'mattress'. Among those his sister sleeps with is a German sailor, and Pin
is dared to steal his pistol, hiding it among the spiders' nests in an act
of rebellion that entangles him in the adults' war. Published in 1947,
Italo Calvino's first novel remains startling, and the 1964 preface is his
most brilliant piece of literary self-examination. 'The crucial novel of
Calvino's early years' Mail on Sunday