A sweet, otherworldly tale that’s billed as “the fantastic adventure that first inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved film, Spirited Away,” The Village Beyond the Mist is sure to charm. Set in a magical town hidden in a mysterious forest clearing, The Village Beyond the Mist is a delightful, multigenerational fantasy for middle grade readers about service. Is that … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Village Beyond the Mist
Filled with imaginative illustrations, Thread by Thread is a delightful picture book for readers age 4-7 that is based on a single, wonderfully extended metaphor--knitting. It's also a moving story about a family of refugee mice. When the story begins, the family lives in a lovely, tidy, red knit house: "Toasty warm in my home, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Thread By Thread
This post originally appeared in my blog - Informative Flights on the 17th of November, 2024 For a while now I've been wanting to highlight the curation of books related to the countries and cultures of our students, and finally this year I got around to creating posters "Celebrating xxx" which I post to our … Continue reading #Dec Displays – Celebrating Germany – By what are we known
by Stephen Sartarelli I have always believed—at least when translating prose—that a literary translator should be like the arbiter or umpire of a sporting event: the less noticed the better. Whenever readers and critics praise, for example, the stylistic elegance of an author I happen to have translated, I take this as a compliment to … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.44: On Translating Camilleri: Notes from the Purer Linguistic Sphere of Translation
by Howard Curtis Gianfranco Calligarich’s Last Summer in the City was first published in Italy in 1973, when its author, like the book’s protagonist, was a young journalist in Rome: this was his first novel. Despite initial success and critical acclaim, it was then forgotten for several decades. It is only in the last ten … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.43: Gianfranco Calligarich’s Last Summer in the City
by Clarissa Botsford The Unbreakable Heart of Oliva Denaro by Viola Ardone is a novel about consent: a living and breathing testament to the #NoMeansNo and #MeToo movements. It’s the kind of book that people read in one night and then pass on to friends. It also lends itself to class and book-club discussions precisely … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.31: No Means No, or Does It? A Moving Testament to a Young Woman’s Courage
by Elena Borelli Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912) is celebrated as a pioneer of modern Italian poetry, and has been hailed by Seamus Heaney as “one of the greatest poets of all times”. Reflecting the spirit of late 19th-century Italy, his works are influenced by French Symbolism and Decadentism, while also drawing from Italy’s rich classical tradition. … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.24: Convivial Poems by Giovanni Pascoli and the Podcast “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul”
by Paolo Grossi newitalianbooks.it is the web portal dedicated to the promotion of Italian books worldwide, comparable to similar European websites such as the German litrix.de and new-books-in-german.com, the French booksfromfrance.fr, the Spanish newspanishbooks.com, the Dutch letterfonds.nl, etc. newitalianbooks.it was born in 2020, on my initiative, in a bilingual, Italian-English edition, thanks to the support … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.20: newitalianbooks.it: Your Portal to the World of Italian Publishing
by Anne Milano Appel I first came upon Daniele Del Giudice in a bookstore window in Rome, while waiting for a bus on Via Vittorio Emanuele. In the window was a copy of his Staccando l'ombra da terra and I went in and bought it. As I read it, I got a sense that this … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.19: My White Whale: Translating Daniele Del Giudice
Chenxin Jiang talks to Geoffrey Brock about his translation of Silvia Vecchini's Before Nightfall, a young adult novel about the siblings Carlo and Emma. Carlo is a teenager who happens to be hearing-impaired and can see only out of one eye. Now that eye is failing, and Carlo must have an operation to try to … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n. 17: Geoffrey Brock on His Translation of Silvia Vecchini’s Young Adult Novel Before Nightfall
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 