In the course of World War II, Silone became the leader of a clandestine socialist organization operating from Switzerland to support resistance groups in Nazi Germany-occupied Northern Italy. The English edition, first published by Penguin Books in September 1934, went through frequent reprintings during the 1930s, with the events of the Spanish Civil War and the escalation towards the outbreak of World War II increasing attention for its subject material. As he recovered, Silone began writing his first novel, Fontamara, published in German translation in 1933.

He suffered from tuberculosis and severe clinical depression and spent nearly a year in Swiss clinics in Switzerland, Aline Valangin helped and played host to him and other migrants. While there, he declared his opposition to Joseph Stalin and the leadership of Comintern consequently, he was expelled from the PCd'I and returned to the PSI. Silone left Italy in 1927 on a mission to the Soviet Union and settled in Switzerland in 1930. Opposition to Stalinism, return to the PSI and breakaway socialist activity Ignazio's brother Romolo Tranquilli was arrested in 1928 for being a member of the PCd'I and died in prison in 1931 as a result of the severe beatings he received. He was a founding member of the breakaway Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) in 1921 and became one of its covert leaders during the Fascist regime. In 1917, Silone joined the Young Socialists group of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), rising to be their leader. He left his hometown and finished high school. His father Paolo Tranquilli died in 1911, and in the 1915 Avezzano earthquake he lost many of his family members, including his mother, Marianna Delli Quadri. Silone was born in a rural family, in the town of Pescina in the Abruzzo region. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature ten times. Secondino Tranquilli ( – 22 August 1978), known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone ( / s ɪ ˈ l oʊ n i/, Italian: ), was an Italian political leader, novelist, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fascist novels.

Fontamara by Ignazio Silone