Italian author Giani Stùparich earned the gold medal at the 1948 Art Competitions in London for his work La Grotta (The Cave) in the category Literature, Epic Works. It was first published in 1933 in the magazine “Occidente”, although Stùparich later edited it several times. Three boys want to explore a cave in the karst. When two of them fell, the third tried in vain to find help in a nearby village. The story is also included in the anthology Nuovi Racconti (New Narratives) published in 1935. The author is best known for his novel, L’Isola (The Island), which he wrote in 1942.
Stùparich studied in Praha, Berlin and Firenze. He first worked as a journalist and reported on various Slavic peoples. In World War I, he was wounded several times and interned as a prisoner of war for several years. His brother Carlo committed suicide during the war to avoid imprisonment. In 1918 Giani Stùparich returned to his hometown of Trieste, where he married his colleague Elody Oblath and began to write novels and short stories. During World War II he worked with the anti-fascist resistance and in 1945 was interned in the concentration camp Risiera di San Sabba with his partly Jewish family. The bishop of Trieste, Antonio Santin, arranged his release.
Italy