The Forgotten Author Alessandro Spina, Who Wrote for Love of Truth

Alessandro Spina, born Basili Shafik Khouzam in 1927 in Benghazi, was a naturalized Italian writer who directed his family's textile business in Libya. He debuted in 1960 with the story "Giugno 40" in Paragone, praised by Cristina Campo as a rare quality. Spina wrote colonial novels from an uncomfortable perspective, revealing truths about Italian occupation of Libya that Italy preferred to ignore. Despite support from Alberto Moravia, Giorgio Bassani, Piero Citati, and Campo, he remained obscure. His style drew from French authors like Proust and Balzac, and German authors like Mann and Musil. He was friends with composer Camillo Togni. In 2006, he published "I confini dell'ombra" with Morcelliana, a compendium of his 11 previous books, now out of print. Critics like Massimo Morasso called him "the most notable prose writer in Italian of recent decades," and Pietro Gelli noted the lack of a strong, continuous publisher like Adelphi as a reason for his obscurity. Spina died in 2013.