Before the labyrinths and lightness in Calvino's prose, there was war.

Into the War collects three early autobiographical pieces in which a young Italo Calvino confronts fascism, conscription, and the chaos of becoming a partisan in WWII Italy. The prose is stripped back and unsentimental. There is no heroic myth-making here — only hesitation, doubt, and the awkwardness of political awakening.

It’s Calvino but in sense of origin, where he is politically formed but not yet stylised. One for fans, or those treading in the water deciding whether to dive deep into his ouvre.