Poised between the Mediterranean and the Mitteleuropa, crossroads of civilizations and seat of vibrant cultural and literary life, Trieste is acknowledged as enjoying unrivalled cultural status amongst Italian cities. This comprehensive study of Triestine literature reassesses the city's literary identity, paying particular attention to the period between 1918 and 1954 when local writing became intensely aware of its local specificity and some of its central motifs came prominently to the fore. Trieste's singular border identity, mirrored in a variegated literary output, emerges here as laden with complexities and ambiguities, such as the controversial notion of triestinita, the ambiguous relationship with nationalism, specifically in its Fascist inflection, and the anxieties generated by repeated re-definitions of the area's historical borders.