Giuseppe (Pino) Lella

Pino Lella is an ordinary teenage boy from Milan who appreciates the simple things in life. However this must soon change as fate intervenes, assigning him a crucial role in the resistance against the Nazi regime. Throughout the novel he changes from boy to man within a relatively short space of time. The first obvious sign of transitioning from a boy into a young man is right at the beginning, where he starts trying to win the affections of every attractive girl he sees, finally securing those of Anna. However his boyishness is still very much apparent in his immature and naïve approach, and it is clear the extent to which he has been relatively sheltered from the war bombarding his home city, given his shock at experiencing a bombing.

His family evidently feels the same way about Pino, regarding his status as not having...