Laura Curino and Lucia Vasini are the skilful narrators of Nuto Revelli’s accounts from the “Anello forte” (The Strong Ring/Link) that the author, an oral storyteller of bygone rural Italy, voices through women. His stories tell of work and tenacity; poignant stories of the abuse and emancipation of rural, and later factory, women workers: their longing for independence and freedom, their ambition for a different future for themselves and their children.