A Bell for Adano
An Italian-American major governs a liberated Sicilian town and replaces the bell the fascists melted down.
The Verdict
Written and honoured while the war was still on, John Hersey's small, warm novel asked what all the fighting was actually for. An Italian-American major takes charge of a newly liberated Sicilian town and sets out to restore not just order but dignity — above all by replacing the seven-hundred-year-old bell the fascists had melted down for guns. Against the backdrop of a blustering, Patton-like general, it is a quiet argument that decency and self-government are the point of victory. Sentimental in places, but its faith in ordinary democracy has aged better than it might have.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- What liberation was supposed to be for
- Occupation and decency in one Sicilian town
- A Pulitzer winner written mid-war
- An antidote to cynicism about the war's aims
Look elsewhere if you want
- Combat or campaign narrative
- Hard-edged realism over sentiment
- The strategy of the Italian campaign
Why We Rated It 4.2
Historical Context
A Bell for Adano (1944) is set in a Sicilian town under American occupation and centres on a civil-affairs officer's effort to restore civic life, symbolised by replacing the town bell. Written by the journalist John Hersey — later author of Hiroshima — it won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0394756950
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
More by John Hersey
Frequently Asked Questions
- Did A Bell for Adano win the Pulitzer?
- Yes — the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, awarded while the war was still being fought.
- Is it based on a real place?
- The town of Adano is modelled on a real Sicilian town under Allied occupation, though the story is fiction.