John Fante (1909-1983), son of Italian immigrants of very humble origin, worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and dedicated his life to literature, although he only reached full recognition of criticism and public after his death. His name has evoked comparisons with writers such as Knut Hamsun, Dostoevsky, Nathanael West, Raymond Carver, and especially Charles Bukowski, whose enthusiasm for his books was decisive for his rediscovery. Like this one, his work reached the glory in Europe before in his own country, in which he was posthumously recognized and awarded in 1987 with the Lifetime Achievement Award by PEN.