Canale Mussolini

The novel follows the Peruzzi family from the 1910s to the Second World War. They are peasant farmers in the lower Po Valley, between Rovigo and Ferrara, working land they rent or sharecrop. In 1904 the grandfather is jailed alongside the socialist Edmondo Rossoni, becomes his friend and names his later children after leaders of the left.

After the First World War the family is caught up in the clashes between socialists and Fascist squads. The title refers to the main drainage canal of the Pontine Marshes, near Latina, which bore Mussolini’s name during the Fascist period.