The Path to the Spiders' Nests - Italo CalvinoPin is a bawdy, adolescent cobbler's assistant, both arrogant and insecure who while the Second World War rages sings songs and tells jokes to endear himself to the grown ups of his town particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as the town's 'mattress'. Among those his sister sleeps with is a German sailor, and Pin dares to steal his pistol, hiding it among the spiders' nests in an act of rebellion that entangles him in the adults' war.