Arturo’s Island (L’Isola di Arturo) is a book written by Elsa Morante and published in 1957. Elsa Morante (1912 – 1985) began her collaboration with different newspaper and magazines quite early.

From the beginning, her work was characterized by the strong presence of the fantasy that the author was able to represent and instill in her books. From 1941 to 1962 she was married to Italian novelist and journalist Alberto Moravia.

Elsa Morante’s novels were once considered the greatest of Italy’s postwar generation.

This is Morante’s second novel and it tells the story of a sixteen year old boy, Arturo, named after a star, and his life on an island in Italy. For him, life is all about amazing dreams, adventures and total freedom. “These are his memoirs, from solitary idyll to the discovery of life: love, friendship, pain, despair.”

The story takes place in 1938 on the island of Procida, near Naples. The protagonist is Arturo Gerace, his mother died in childbirth and his father, Wilhelm Gerace, is often away for work. Therefore, Arturo lives alone on the island and spends his childhood worshipping his father and making up fantastic stories about his travels.  

Arturo is a fighter, he doesn’t have neither food nor clothes, and he spends his days running around the island, admiring its beautiful beaches and cliffs, reading stories about knights, and daydreaming.

His only friends are his dog, Immacolatella, and a kid named Silvestro. He lives by himself in the dilapidated family house.

His life is characterized by fantasy as much as loneliness.

The only thing related to his mother that Arturo has is an old photograph and, as in the case of his father, Arturo worships his late mother as well.

One day his father comes home with his new bride. She is sixteen-year-old as Arturo and her name is Nunziata; “a child-mother who unintentionally marks a line between little Gerace's childhood and his first step into adulthood. For the first time, Arturo discovers the female world, amorous feelings and carnal attraction.”

His new stepmother causes Arturo to feel a wide range of different and unsettling emotions. On one hand, he is attracted to her, while on the other hand, he feels repulsion and jealousy towards his newly born baby brother, Carmine Arturo.

Because of this situation, Arturo reaches the point to try commit suicide by taking sleeping pills.

Nunziata rejects Arturo’s feelings and his disappointment and dissatisfaction lead him to find comfort and solace in Assunta, a young widow who introduce Arturo to sex.

As he grows old, Arturo discovers the harsh reality of disappointment and starts to see things behind their façade. He no longer worships his father. The island he has always lived on begins to feel small for this young boy, who is committed to leaving his fantasy and starting to live his own true life.

Therefore, he decides to leave it all behind and join the army.

“The novel is a careful exploration of the first reality toward the unpolluted sources of life. The native island represents a happy original reclusion and, at the same time, the temptation of unknown lands. The island, then, is the point of a choice, and to that final choice, through the various necessary trials, the boy hero-Arturo prepares himself here, on his island.”