Nel deserto

Among the most honored women writers of modern Italy, Deledda wrote naturalistic or realistic novels, drawing upon her Sardinian background for material. Some critics hold, however, that in Deledda's formula often only the names of places and people serve to evoke a Sardinian atmosphere of strangeness. Her best works especially Elias Portolu show more (1903), Cenere (1904), and The Mother (1920) contain excellent portrayals of women. While her characters are complex, often dominated by an overwhelming sense of destiny and by nature's mythic powers, her narrative structures remain simple and classic. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926. (Bowker Author Biography) show less