Gesualdo Bufalino (Comiso, Sicily, 1920-1996) studied literature in Catania and Palermo. In 1942 he was called up; Captured in 1943 by the Germans, he managed to escape. He had to be hospitalized in 1944; In 1946 he left the Conca d'Oro sanatorium, in Palermo. From then until his retirement in 1976, he was a high school teacher in Sicily. Completely removed from the literary world, he was "discovered" by his instruction to a volume of Comiso photographs; From then on he was harassed by the Sicilian publisher Sellerio to give them some "manuscript from the drawer." After much reluctance, he delivered Perorata del apestado, which immediately became the "literary case" of 1981, for which he won the prestigious Campiello Prize, awarded by a jury of 300 readers to the best work published in 1981, and became one of the bestsellers of the year, despite its demanding characteristics.