“Either the work of John Fante is unknown to you or unforgettable. He was not the kind of writer to leave room in between.” — New York Times

“Fante was my God.”—Charles Bukowski

John Fante’s second book details the adventures of his alter ego, Arturo Bandini, a young writer in Los Angeles in the late 1930s. Struggling to succeed, Bandini falls in love with the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Yet just as fortune looms with the publication of his first novel, everything falls apart when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears—propelling Bandini to reject the writer’s life.