Ignazio Silone (May 1, 1900 - August 22, 1978) is the pseudonym of Secondo Tranquilli, an Italian author.

He lost many family members in the 1915 Avezzano earthquake. He joined the Young Socialists, and rose to be their leader; then joined the Italian Communist Party in 1921. He was one of their covert leaders.

He left Italy in 1928 on a mission to the USSR, and settled in 1930 in Switzerland. There he declared his opposition to Stalin, and support for Trotsky and Zinoviev. He was expelled from the Party. In the same year he published his first novel, Fontamara.

He returned to Italy only in 1945, when he was elected as a Socialist deputy. He left politics, and founded the magazine Tempo.

Bibliography

• Fontamara (1930)
• Bread and Wine (Vino E Pane) (1937)
• The School for Dictators (1938)
• The Seed Beneath the Snow (1940)
• Handful of Blackberries (1952)
• The Story of a Humble Christian (1968)