Mario Rigoni Stern is one of the largest and deepest of the postwar Italian writers and one of the few survivors of the withdrawal in 1943 of the Italian army in Russia. The intense bond between nature and the memory is the essence of the work of this narrator has brought to light by a personal voice, a series of memories that can only be evoked in the silence of the mountains and the snow. Born in Asiago (Vicenza) in 1921, until his death in 2008, Rigoni Stern has always been tied to his hometown, where his life was involved in countless vicissitudes as a soldier and as a man. In 1938 he enlisted as a volunteer in the military school of mountaineering Aosta, when war seemed far away. However, a year later Rigoni understand that events will forever change the course of his life, because he will be playing undergo some of the toughest human experiences: from the withdrawal and abandonment of comrades in the snow until the deportations a German concentration camp, where he permacerá until 1945, year in which miraculously get back to his beloved homeland. These experiences are reflected in the work of the writer, for whom years in prison constitute more than a time of suffering and hunger are also the time of writing, the memory and the memory of all the fallen comrades. A few pages that preserve unaltered its ability to fascinate and move us deeply.

Among the works of Rigoni Stern include: Il sargente nellaneve (1953), Il bosco degli urogalli (1962), Quota Albania (1971), Ritorno sul Don (1973), Tonle Storia (1978), Uomini, boschie api (1980) , L'anno della vittoria (1985), Salvatico Arboretum (1986), Il libro degli animali (1990), Le stagioni di Giacomo (1995), Tra due guerre (2000), Stagioni (2006).