The Skin is the savage account of the American occupation of Naples, first European city to be liberated in World War II. Malaparte's bestseller is the famous tale of the orgiastic riot of licentiousness, debauchery, and sensuality which took place when the conquered Italians, men, women and children, long under the Fascist and Nazi boot, hastened to prostitute themselves to their American conquerors, the U. S. Army.
"Malaparte is a very great writer," said the noted critic, Pierre Lesdain. "The Skin is a tremendous work, a masterpiece. Writers like Henry Miller and Malaparte have such vitality, such vigor, such immense power that when viewed by ordinary men they seem monstrous. In The Skin everything is on a grand scale..."
Here at last is The Skin, the over two-million-copy best seller about the U.S. Army loose in occupied Naples in World War II. The power, violence, and cruelty in these pages are a passionate reaction to the spectacle of human degradation. In The Skin, the military decay and the destruction of Europe are taken to stand for the moral collapse and revolution of modern life. The Skin has been hailed by readers and critics throughout the world as a work of epic proportions.
"MALAPARTE is a great writer. THE SKIN is a tremendous work.... In THE SKIN everything is on a grand scale."—Pierre Lesdain
"MALAPARTE is the most epic of all the great writers of Europe."—Robert Pick
"MALAPARTE is the prophet of a martyred, conquered Europe—a noble, despairing prophet whose song will remain unforgettable." Paul Levy