by Lori Hetherington The old woman finished peeling a chestnut and, after handing it to the youngest of her grandchildren, began to speak with her sweet voice and the pure accent of Tuscany’s mountain people… Stories told by an old grandmother exist in virtually every culture. Some are part of the oral tradition, some are … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n. 16: Translating Tuscan Tales
by Richard Dixon The World Machine is a vivid novelistic portrayal of rural life in postwar Italy. Its narrator, a small-time farmer, is one of life’s misfits, a young man who generally manages to play his cards wrongly. He is the keeper of a great truth: that people are machines built by other beings who … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.14: The Nature of Reality and the Human Condition in 1950s Rural Italy, in Paolo Volponi’s The World Machine
by Leah Janeczko In various posts in our Italian Lit Month blog, you’ll find links to Translators Aloud, a YouTube channel that features videos of translators reading passages from their works. Though only four years old, this “voice of translated literature” has already become a household name in the translator community and has gained nearly … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n. 8: Translators Aloud and Its Italian Playlist
by Oonagh Stransky Domenico Starnone, born in Naples in 1943, is one of Italy’s greatest living authors. His name is often mentioned in connection to the mysterious figure of Elena Ferrante because of their shared interest in certain themes and the city of Naples. But we won’t be talking about that here. The Mortal and … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.6: Who’s That Girl? A Reader’s Guide to The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan
by Johanna Bishop Florence is full of American students—18,000 of them in 2024 alone. And most, of course, are undergraduates who arrive unequipped with enough Italian to let them simply pick books off the shelf in a shop or library. Back in 2016, the young people in Alessandro Raveggi’s class at NYU Florence had the … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.4: The Florence Review: Italy’s First Bilingual Lit Mag
by Howard Curtis Although not especially well known outside Italy, Beppe Fenoglio is considered one of the most significant Italian writers of the period immediately after World War II. Emerging as he did from the anti-Fascist partisan movement, he wrote mostly (though not exclusively) about the war years. When his novel A Private Affair was … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.2: Beppe Fenoglio’s A Private Affair
If there's one thing that captures the heart and soul of Taiwanese culture, it's the food—and believe me, this is a book that serves it up in style! As a self-confessed food lover (as you might have learned from the bio at the end of each post!), I’ve been eagerly waiting to share this post … Continue reading #TaiwanKidLitMonth: Taiwan Travelogue – A Culinary Journey Through History
Sweet but not saccharine, heartwarming but not maudlin, Two Little Red Mittens is a charming, old-fashioned story. A picture book for children ages seven and under, the gentle tale features an anthropomorphic pair of red mittens: Left and right, they always went out as a pair, wrapping Little One’s hands in … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Two Little Red Mittens
Every two or three years, I usually would have one Taiwanese student who loves to read come to the library occasionally to discuss the books they have read with me. We would recommend books to each other, and thanks to them, I read some fantastic Taiwanese literature while busy catching up with the English YA … Continue reading #TaiwanKidLitMonth: Recommended Taiwanese literature by and for high school students
In our big, bustling hometown in southwest China,On the top floor of an apartment tower, lives an old grandma.A weather-worn apron covers her cornflower blue blouse,And she putters about town, lugging her little cart around. In Grandma’s Roof Garden, a delightful, heartwarming picture book for ages 4-8, we meet an eccentric, energetic grandmother. With enviable … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Grandma’s Roof Garden
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 