"Fante was my God", stated the writer Charles Bukowski, who defined him as "The cursest narrator in America". John Fante is the heart and soul of Torricella Peligna, a son of the exodus of migrants who left in the Nineteenth Century for the “American Dream”. Born in Denver, Colorado, on 8 April 1909, the son of Mary Capoluongo and Nicola Fante, a bricklayer who left for the United States from Torricella, John Fante is considered as one of the most important American writers of his generation, along with Hemingway, Faulkner and Steinbeck. He gained his international fame especially thanks to the novels of the Arturo Bandini saga, his alter ego and the protagonist of “The Road to Los Angeles”, “Wait until Spring, Bandini”, “Ask the Dust” and ”Dreams from Bunker Hill”, along with “Full of life”. Those titles have been written in large letters on the lawn of the Media Library, a literary and cultural temple that Torricella dedicated to one of its most representative sons.

To pay a tribute and preserve the accomplishment of the “American dream” of the great novelist and playwright, Torricella Peligna moved from “My God” by Bukowski to “The God of my father”, which is the title of a literary summer festival that hosts writers, journalists, critics, directors and well-known artists to promote the knowledge of John Fante “the most damned narrator of America” and to tackle topics as interculture, emigration, immigration and the encountering of populations. The Festival also includes a literary contest for first-time writers. All the publications by Fante are collected in the Media Library, together with the translations in the main foreign languages and the international critical essays.

Not only Fante, the Media Library also keeps a broad literature and historiography of Torricella Peligna and the Brigata Maiella founded by Errore Troilo, narrating the history of the successful fight against nazifascism. The “Gold Medal for Military Value” to the flag of Maiella is a proof of “the sacrifice” of the people from Abruzzo “who immediately and widely sacrificed their lives for the honour and freedom of Italy”.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]