Mario Rigoni Stern

On 1 November 1921 – a hundred years ago – Mario Rigoni Stern was born in Asiago. Before becoming a writer, Stern was a soldier and fought in the Second World War. His most famous novel is Il sergente nella neve (The sergeant in the snow), which describes his autobiographical experiences during the collapse of the Russian campaign and the subsequent retreat of the Italian army. In 1955, he published a story entitled “Chiusura di caccia” (“Hunting closure”), set in the Asiago region, in the Rivista Pirelli magazine. The multilingual Mario Rigoni Stern literary prize is dedicated to him, and in 2022 was won by Paolo Malaguti with his book Il moro della cima (The Moor of the summit).