This book examines the evocation of place in the works of Dino Buzzati and Elsa Morante. Although these two post-war Italian authors are quite dramatically different in style and subject matter, they share an important point, an evocation of place which is constructed around the tension between the purported realism of map space and the irrational yet persuasive powers of fantasy. Conceived as more than the author's response to a referent of specific locations, sense of place emerges through the interplay of different and apparently contradictory notions. The theoretical works examined in the introduction establish that sense of place is constructed according to two coexisting and conflicting approaches: one which defines place as an outcome of individual perception; and another in which place is understood as an arrangement of locations separate from the individual. In their evocation of place, both Buzzati and Morante emphasise the interplay of these approaches, to the point where they foster an awareness of the conflict and discord between these two ways of constructing reality. The role of these constructs is examined in the texts, particularly their manipulation by the authors to produce verisimilitude or fantasy. The book will appeal to a wider audience than scholars concerned with the authors studied, because it sets up a theoretical approach which could be applied to the study of other literary works.