Bandini is a magnificent creation, and his rediscovery is not before time. * * Times Literary Supplement * * John Fante takes some beating . . . mean, moody, disturbing and intensely atmospheric. * * The Times * * John Fante knew how to make words sing. When he was on form, he could write sentences that stopped time. * * Uncut * *

A powerful, lyrical and touching tale of a turbulent adolescent trying to break out of the suffocating, prison-like confinements of family, poverty and religion in a small town, Wait Until Spring, Bandini tells the story of a winter in the childhood of Arturo Bandini, oldest son of Italian immigrants living in Colorado during the Great Depression. With its powerful and evocative account of tragic love affairs, grinding poverty and adolescence in turmoil, this first novel from the Bandini quartet is a much-neglected masterpiece of modern American literature.