The Beautiful Summer

The Beautiful Summer is a novel by Italian author Cesare Pavese, first published in Italian as La bella estate in 1949.

The book won the Strega Prize, the most prestigious Italian literary award, in 1950. It was released in English by Peter Owen in 1955, and rereleased by Penguin European Writers in 2018.

The book is an account of juvenile love, hope and defeat in 1930s northern Italy. It comprises three novellas: the epomynous The Beautiful Summer (La bella estate, first published in 1940), The devil in the Hills (Il diavolo sulle colline, 1948) and Women on Their Own (Tra donne sole, 1949).

Le amiche, a 1955 italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, is based on the last novella of the book.