Ippolito Nievo was born in 1831 in Padua. Confessions of an Italian, written in 1858 and published posthumously in 1867, is his best-known work. A patriot and a republican, he took part with Garibaldi and his Thousand in the momentous 1860 landing in Sicily to free the south from Bourbon rule. Nievo died before he reached the age of thirty, when his ship went down in the Tyrrhenian Sea in early 1861.
Frederika Randall has worked as a cultural journalist for many years. Her previous translations include Luigi Meneghello's Deliver Us, Ottavio Cappellani's Sicilian Tragedee and Sergio Luzzatto's Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age.
Lucy Riall is Professor of Comparative History at the European University Institute. Her many books include Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero.