Via the Chicago Reader: "After World War II an Italian soldier returns to his hometown near the Alps and, unable to find a job, hooks up with a crotchety hermit who scavenges buried shells and bombs for scrap metal."
The story is set in Illyria, fictional central European country, towards the end of World War II. A young man infiltrates into the house of a left-wing politician as his secretary. By order of the Communist party, the young man has to kill the politician, who is suspected of a strategy of compromise with other parties.
