An absorbing and candid memoir, steeped in the details of life in Southern Italy circa 1959. Cornelisen, a protestant from the American south, writes of her work and struggles to be accepted in the Catholic, deeply conservative region, where she helped to establish nursery centers. First published in 1969, the book is a classic portrait of the mountainous villages of Basilicata. She has also written a book about the women of the region, Women of the Shadows.  (ITL460, $16.00)