The author highlights the value of Edmondo de Amicis’ novel as a written testimony, unique in Italian literature, of the epic transoceanic voyages of compatriots migrating to the Americas in the second half of the 19th century. The strong social bent of the testimony, written in the first person by the author, make it a true “social novel” that effectively reverberates in the informational and cultural context of Italy contemporary to him.
