A Bell for Adano
John Hersey
Mass Market Paperback
(Bantam, Jan. 1, 1976)
"Adano was a small Italian town, and its heart was a 700 year- old bell. Farmers set off to theier fields, bakers made their bread, and the faithful went to church by its resonant ringing. At the outbreak of the war, the Fascists took the bell to a factory in Milan to melt it down for guns and ammunition. When the Americans conquered Italy, it became Major Victor Joppolo's job to solve the problems of Adano. Above all he had to find a new bell in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles." ONE OF THE MOST MOVING NOVELS TO COME OUT OF WORLD WAR II.