by Michael F. Moore Martina Franca, in Puglia, is the hometown of the writer Mario Desiati, and the setting of almost all of his novels. The town, and indeed the region as a whole, is so ubiquitous in his latest, the Strega Prize-winning Spatriati, as to become one of the book’s main characters, alongside the … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.47: Reclaiming Puglia in Mario Desiati’s Spatriati
by Leah Janeczko They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if the cover boasts one of these six awards, it means that judges somewhere in the world have deemed the book shelfworthy. Though there are many other national and international literary and translation prizes celebrating Italian works, this is a good … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.45: Six Italian Literary and Translation Awards You Should Know About
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 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
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 