The effects of war on those who fight and on civilian populations as well was a concern of Hersey's from the beginning of his career. In Men of Bataan (1942) and Into the Valley (1943) his compassion for the American serviceman was obvious. In A Bell for Adano he shows the effects of an invasion on the peasant population of Sicily. Sicily had seen a number of invasions, but these invaders were American and British, quite different from those of the past who had come from other parts of the Mediterranean. They were decidedly different too from the German armies which had occupied the island and with whom the Italians had an uneasy alliance. Since 1922, Sicilian peasants had lived under a fascist dictatorship.

For them the fascist salute had become a reflex action when dealing with any authority. Sicily had never known the American style of democracy. Bribes...