It’s been more than 70 years since that march 25th 1957, when Europe was actually born with the Treaty of Rome. Both the islands of Santo Stefano and Ventotene, once imprisonment places, one for those convicted to life sentence and the other one for exiles, especially war prisoners and regime’s opponents, appear very different today. Still, they are considered the real cradle of modern Europe, and powerful symbols that constantly honour their past and the hard fight for freedom and justice conducted by many of their captives. Thanks to a thorough and careful research in the archives of the prisons, the author presents us, a modern Spoon River, with unprecedented letters, documents and stories of those who struggled, suffered, studied there and kept the politics going, not all of them surviving long enough to see the fruits of their work.
Pier Vittorio Buffa published with Franco Giustolisi, Al di là di quelle mura (Rizzoli, 1984) and .Mara, Renato e io. Storia dei fondatori delle Brigate Rosse (Mondadori, 1988). He is the author of the novel ‘Ufficialmente dispersi’ (Marsilio 1995, later Transeuropa 2010) and the powerful essay ‘Io ho visto’ (Nutrimenti 2013).
Pub date: April 2017
Length: 288 pp
La Repubblica
Silvana Mazzocchi
Santo Stefano e Ventotene i senza nome morti in prigione
L'Espresso
Redazione
"Non volevo morire così": una Spoon River tra Santo Stefano e Ventotene
Messaggero Veneto
Giorgio Nisini
I lati più intimi di una storia minore d'Italia
La Nuova Sardegna
Alessandro Marongiu
"Non volevo morire così". Storie delle isole-galera
Il Mattino di Padova
Nicolò Menniti-Ippolito
Le vite perdute nella segregazione di galera e confino
Il Piccolo
Pietro Spirito
La Spoon River di Ventotene
Nuova Ferrara
Giorgio Nisini
Buffa riporta alla luce storie di uomini dimenticati
L'Espresso
Non volevo morire così