Umberto Saba (March 9, 1883 - August 26, 1957) was the pseudonym of Italian poet and novelist Umberto Poli. His creative work was hampered by a life-long struggle with mental illness.

This volume, winner while still in manuscript form of the Italo Calvino and PEN Renato Poggioli translation awards, gathers together diverse writings by long-neglected Jewish-Italian author Saba (1883-1957), whose short novel Ernesto is his only prose previously published in English. Stories, essays, mini-memoirs, letters and "shortcuts"--nuggets of literary observation--will introduce many readers to this Trieste poet who also ran an antiquarian bookshop, referred to in one essay as his "gloomy cave." Two pieces address the subject of book collecting: one describes how Saba bought and sold stock for his store; the other advises bibliophiles on building their own private libraries. Additional subjects explored include marriage, loyalty, racism, war, nationalism, pet chickens, dreams and meatballs. In spare, realistic prose that makes even his fiction seem almost journalistic, Saba manages to convey great emotion and deep thought simultaneously. Although only a fraction of his 600 poems have been published in the U.S., this excellent prose collection should gain him some of the recognition already won by his friends and fellow Italian writers Carlo Levi and Eugenio Montale.