In 1926, Grazia Deledda was both the second woman and second Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She also had a pet crow named Checcha. With that magical intuition that crows are believed to have, Checcha would apparently fly away when too many people descended on Deledda’s house as her fame grew, and she heeded the crow’s warning, and sent everyone away. 

We first read and loved her short story “Il Cinghialetto” - The Little Wild Boar - while studying Italian at the University of Padua. Now we are working on an original English adaptation of the story with original drawings. 

From a translation of her Nobel speech: “I was born in Sardinia. My family consisted of wise as well as violent people, and primitive artists. The family was respected and in good standing, and they had a private library. But when I started writing at thirteen, they objected. As the philosopher says, If your son is writing poems, send him to the mountain paths; the next time you may punish him; but the third time, leave him alone because he is a poet.” And so is she. 

Image from the Sardegna Digital Library.