The Path to the Spiders' Nests

Set on the Ligurian coast during World War II, The Path to the Spiders' Nests tells the story of Pin, a cobbler's apprentice who lives with his sister, a prostitute, and spend as much time as he can at the local bar. When his friends dare him to steal a pistol from a Nazi soldier, he sets off on a series of picaresque adventures with a band of partisans. Calvino's portrayal of this band, seen through the eyes of the child, is not only a revealing commentary on the Italian resistance, but also a moving coming-of-age story. First published in 1947, and reissued here in a revised translation that incorporates the changes Calvino himself made to the text, The Path to the Spiders' Nests is a bold, adventurours first novel animated by the formidable imagination that was to make Italo Calvino one of the most respected writers of the second half of this century.