Giuseppe Di Giacomo's book examines the work of some of the most important and significant writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Flaubert to Beckett, from Dostoevsky to Kafka, in close connection with the analysis of the works of such philosophers and literary theorists as Lukács, Bakhtin, Ricoeur, Benjamin and others. The main directions and themes raised in the novel of the twentieth century are highlighted: problems of meaning, time, memory, as well as the relationship between the author and the hero. The book is published in collaboration with “Elitalia” - Institute of Italian Language and Culture of the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy (www.centroelitalia.ru).