‘Italian Hills,Farewell’ is an intriguing and unforgettable first novel. It is the story ofone woman remembering her troubled life in 1920s fascist Italy. Rita is an Italianpeasant from the northern mountains, with very little education. She is naive,feels she belongs nowhere and allows herself to be exploited by ‘well-wishers’with political motives. When the secret police become interested in her, sheflees but, in helping a woman with a new baby, she falls foul of the woman’shusband. The tension rises and she knows that she must somehow escape fromItaly at all costs.