The Seed Beneath the Snow, the final novel in Ignazio Silone’s celebrated Abruzzo Trilogy (and the author’s personal favorite), continues the story of the fugitive Pietro Spina. Taking refuge with his wealthy grandmother, Spina ultimately refuses to accept the conditions of pardon for his transgressions against the fascist state, which she obtains on his behalf, and flees to the mountains. There, he shelters with the underground revolution and makes, once again, their cause his own. As in Fontamara and Bread and Wine, Silone achieves a rich harmony of allegory and realism in his portrayal of the cafoni of Abruzzo and their struggle for freedom. First published in 1941, The Seed Beneath the Snow is an unburnished vision of the conflict between good and evil, communicating—in the words of F. W. Dupee—“Silone’s deep integrity, his sufferings and aspirations, his radical sense of the world’s wrongs.