Luigi Meneghello, who has died aged 85, was one of the most interesting, and according to some critics, the best contemporary Italian writer.

And here’s a bit about his writing:

The fascist convictions of his teens disintegrated quickly and Meneghello, who had been called up for military service, joined the resistance in 1943 as the Italian state collapsed, setting up a partisan group under the aegis of the liberal socialist and anti-fascist Partito d’Azione. He gives a striking account of this period in a work of high literary value, I piccoli maestri (1964) – in English, The Outlaws (1967) – one of the few non-rhetorical, and therefore all the more effective, memoirs of the Italian resistance, which is true in every detail. [. . .]

Meneghello’s first book was Libera nos a malo (1963), an extraordinary accomplishment which remains one of the most important Italian works of the last five decades. The title page calls it a novel (romanzo) but it belongs to no traditional genre and is simultaneously an autobiography, an essay about the life and culture of his village, and a reflection on literature, language and thought.