Italian writer and philosopher Michela Marzano has written extensively about ethics and politics. One day, in her early forties, she finds out that one of her father's given names is Benito and starts looking into her family's past.

Shame Shadows My Name is the story of Marzano's investigation, retracing the journey of her grandfather Arturo, a respected magistrate and, she is to discover, a follower of Benito Mussolini and fascist of the first hour.

As she gets deeper into her research, Marzano reconstructs her own discomfort with the familial atmosphere in which she grew up, the clashes with her father, the suffering caused by his contempt for her mother and brother.

Fascism, buried beneath the ashes of shame, resurfaces in behaviours and relationships. The only antidote is to unearth it and stare it in the face.