The author of this wartime memoir recounts the suff erings and deprivations thataffl icted the inhabitants of Tufo di Minturno a small town on the southwesterncoast of Italy during World War II. In powerful and moving prose MarioSaltarelli tells the tragic story of what he his family and his fellow townspeoplewere forced to endure as battle raged in and around Tufo di Minturno. Th etown located just north of the Garigliano River was part of the fi ercely defendedGustav Line established by the German Army in an eff ort to block the path toRome following the Allied invasion of Italy.