All Our Yesterdays Author:Natalia Ginzburg This powerful novel is set against the background of Italy from 1939 to 1944, from the anxious months before the country entered the war, through the war years to the Allied victory with its trailing wake of anxiety, disappointment, and grief. In the foreground are the members of two families. One is rich, the other is not. In All Our Yesterdays... more », as in all of Ms. Ginzburg's novels, terrible things happen - sucide, murder, air raids, and bombings. But less awesome events, like a family quarrel, an adultery, or a deception, are given equal space, as if to say that to a victim, adultery and air raids can be equally maiming. It gives a sharp portrait of a society hungry for change, betrayed by war.« less