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Ugo's tale -- THE BONES OF GENESIUS -- The percheron -- The bones of Genesius -- The imbeciles and the fig tree or, and they lived happy and content -- Tista and the mute -- Tommaso the killer -- Il chioccino -- Bucchione and the angel of sadness -- The flour-eater and the girl without a reflection -- Buona fortuna! -- THE ENCHANTED GLADE AND THE BABBLING BROOK -- The fireflies of Autumn -- The enchanted glade and the babbling brook -- The consequences of frostbite -- THE VISITOR -- A modest tour of San Ginese -- The adulteress -- The dinner of the pig -- The dead boy -- An anagraphical desire -- La storia di San Ginese -- The moral of a modest tour of San Ginese -- HUMAN SACRIFICE -- 'A luciana -- And Moses spoke to god -- The migrant's lament -- The translator's tale -- Dramatis personae.

San Ginese is a village where God lingers in people?s minds and many dream of California, Argentina or Australia. Some leave only to return feeling disheartened, wishing they had never come back, some never leave and forever wish they had. The Fireflies of Autumn takes us to the olive groves and piazzas of this little-known Tuscan village. There we meet Bucchione, who was haunted by the Angel of Sadness; Lo Zena, his neighbour, with whom he feuded for forty years; Tommaso the Killer, the Adulteress, the Dead Boy and many others. These are tales of war and migration, feasts and misfortunes ? of a people and their place over the course of the twentieth century.