The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

It was my visit with an Italian to Ferrari, a place I greatly liked, that led me to read Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which is a Penguin Modern Classic. https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/my-italian-journey-saturday-16-may-day-five-ferrara/ The point when my friend mentioned the book was when we tried to visit the Jewish Cemetery. Unfortunately we couldn’t because it was a Saturday, the holy day. Bassani’s novel is sparked by him visiting the grave of the Finzi-Continis in the Cemetery, rather as Proust’s great novel flows from the taste of the madeleine. (The grave is actually that of the Finzi-Magrinis, and my friend’s surname is Magrini.) Almost before the novel starts we are told what became of the family: “Only Alberto had been buried there, the oldest, who died in 1942 of a lymphogranuloma, whilst Micòl, the daughter, born second, and their father Ermanno, and their mother Signora Olga, and Signora Regina, her ancient paralytic mother, were…