Einaudi, 1995.

“Giacomo’s seasons”, translated by Elizabeth Harris, Autumn Hill Books, 2012.

This is the book that closes the trilogy of the Plateau, and works as a link between that and “The Sergeant” and “Quota Albania.” The author tells of himself and of a dear friend, children in the 20s and 30s, before the world and their country fell again into the tragedy of war. Even in this case is urgent in Rigoni Stern the need to tell and testify, before the memory is lost.

In the novel we find the small community of the Plateau forced to a difficult existence, marked by poverty and unemployment. The tough and dangerous job of the “recuperante” (of the finds of the Great War) is the only alternative to emigration for many young people. Among them Giacomo, who in the mountains learns to perceive the silence of the woods, the words and memories of the dead soldiers, the language of a land, exhausted yet alive, that is already preparing to undergo again the bite of violence and death into the living flesh of its young people.

“Le stagioni di Giacomo”, which cost the author a few months of work in total isolation because of the tight deadlines imposed by Giulio Einaudi, won the Premio Grinzane Cavour 1996.