Fante's protagonists are closely tied to his own fate. It quickly becomes apparent how conflict-ridden life was in the USA for a strictly Catholic Italian immigrant family. "West of Rome" is the culmination of all family problems; here, Fante gets to the heart of what he has to say about family and marriage. This book is a love-hate declaration to family in literary history. "West of Rome" was published posthumously in 1986 and 1987 in German. Long out of print, our edition presents for the first time the complete scope of the American original edition in German: The novel is accompanied by the story "The Orgy.".