My Secret Diary - Giovanni Guareschi

1958 first English translation hardcover with dust jacket and 199 pages in very good condition.

Giovannini Guareschi is too little regarded these days, but he will be back. As he said while imprisoned by the Nazis, "I will not die even if they kill me."

Better known for his Don Camillo books, which are very difficult to find at present, this diary, based on notes taken while in a series of prison camps, is even rarer. Even if the reader is not Catholic or Italian, this volume is quite properly shelved with Viktor Frankl's MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING and Jean Bernard's PRIESTBLOCK 25487 for its universal appeal.

If you come across anything by Guareschi -- probably at a garage sale or a public library purge -- buy it. Guareschi speaks to faith, love of one's home (the "mondo piccolo"), the difficulties of small nations caught in the power struggles between large ones, and the dignity of the individual.