This novel is the third part of the celebrated trilogy Camon called "the cycle of the lowliest", which traced one of the most important but least recognized events of modern history: the death of Italy's peasant civilization. Camon's northern Italy was primitive and poor; little more than strong religious beliefs helped to sustain the populace through years of poverty, hunger, and disease. With the arrival of the "civilizing" aspects of modern life, however, the peasant way of life, and all it stood for, changed forever. Memorial is the final installment in Camon's attempt to capture and immortalize the ageless peasant world. The first two books in the trilogy, The Fifth Estate and Life Everlasting, are also available from The Marlboro Press/Northwestern.