As an international scholar and resident of Italy who has observed and shared the experiences of Italian women for the past twenty years, Alba Amoia has positioned herself perfectly to report to English-speaking audiences the great range and variety of writing produced by twentienth-century Italian women. Her personal contact with many of the authors she discusses lends further immediacy to her study. Rather than focusing exclusively on contemporary living authors, Amoia discusses writers from the early part of the twentieth century as well, linking them with later writers spanning twentieth-century Italy's literary movements and political, social, and economic developments. The eleven writers in this volume criticize the female role in Italian society, externalize women's unconscious needs, and offer unusual examples of feminine creativity. Amoia provides a critical treatment of each author, incorporating the accepted opinion of Italian and other critics. Essentially, Amoia provides a collection of succinct and accesible monographs featuring pertinent biographical information and extensive bibliographies. She discusses each author's most representative works, seeking to give readers both a sense of these women as writers and an understanding of their significance in the male dominated literary scene.