The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him.

Viewing civilian life as a continuation of the partisan struggle he confirmed his membership of the Italian Communist Party. In 1947 he graduated with a Master's thesis on Joseph Conrad wrote short stories in his spare time and landed a job in the publicity department at the Einaudi publishing house run by Giulio Einaudi. Austere anti-Fascist freethinkers Eva and Mario refused to give their sons any religious education.

Italo Calvino (Italian: [ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno]; 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. Lionised in Britain and the United States he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.