Diari dal secolo della peste

One of the main research focuses in the fiction and non-fiction of PrimoLevi and Leonardo Sciascia was the history of the 20th century. The authorthat brings them together the most is Manzoni: his experiments with thehistorical novel, his non-cynical realism, his irony, the way he listened to themost vulnerable. Taking the autobiographical roots of the two writers as astarting point, this paper - presented at the 12th Leonardo Sciascia Colloquiumheld in Rome on the 7th and 8th of October 2021 - aims to outline theirattitudes to justice, to the responsibility of the individual and to narrativeinvention based on facts and historical sources. [Publisher's text]