It chronicles the relationships between the narrator and the children of the Finzi-Contini family from the rise of Benito Mussolini until the start of World War II.

According to Bassani, one hundred and eighty-three Jews living in Ferrara were deported to German concentration camps, predominantly under the puppet Italian Social Republic in 1943.

There are at least three English translations of the novel: the first by Isabel Quigly (Atheneum, 1965, mentioned above), one by William Weaver (Quartet Books, 1974) and one by Jamie McKendrick (Penguin, 2007), Vittorio De Sica's 1970 film adaptation stars Lino Capolicchio as Giorgio (the narrator), Dominique Sanda as Micòl, and Helmut Berger as Alberto.

It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Screenplay (based on material from another medium).

New York City Opera and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene premiered an operatic adaptation by Ricky Ian Gordon (music) and Michael Korie (libretto) on 27 January 2022, conducted by James Lowe at Edmond J. Safra Hall in the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Manhattan.