The Mill on the Po trilogy has been called the ?epic of the common man,? intended?in its author?s own words??to poeticize a century and to celebrate the tenacious humility of the little people of Italy, who have kept faith?and refused to be crushed by the almost overwhelming burden of their history.? The trilogy?s central theme is the birth of Italy as a nation; its central figures are Lazzaro Scacerni and his family, their mill on the river Po, and the river itself?stately, savage, source of both life and death.Nothing New Under the Sun centers on Cecilia Scacerni and her children as they continue to eke out their living on Saint Michael?s Mill. As the twentieth century dawns, the family is drawn into the social unrest and upheaval of Italy?s struggle for self-assertion and sovereignty and brought to the very brink of ruin. Bringing the story of the Scacerni family to its explosive ending at the battle of the Piave River in the First World War, Nothing New Under the Sun magnificently concludes Bacchelli?s capacious and passionate masterpiece, The Mill on the Po.