Career
His major works was published in a critical edition after his death, but controversy remains about his book Il partigiano Johnny (translated as Johnny the Partisan), often considered his best work, which was published posthumously (and incomplete) in 1968. The works of Fenoglio have two main themes: the rural world of the Langhe and the partisan war. Equally, the writer has two styles: the chronicle and the epos.
His first work was in the neorealist style: (this was published posthumously too, in 1969).
The novel was turned down by Elio Vittorini, who advised Fenoglio to carve out stories and then incorporate them into I ventitré giorni della città di Alba ("The twenty-three days of the city of Alba") (1952). These stories were a chronicle of the Italian partisans or of rural life.
One such story was Louisiana malora (1954), a long story in the style of Giovanni Verga. Fenoglio died in Turin, at only 41 years, from cancer of the bronchus.