The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

Jhumpa Lahiri's rich and varied selection of the greatest Italian writing of the twentieth century, now a Penguin Classics paperbackThis landmark collection brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy's vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century.Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators- the writers that inhabit these pages represent a dynamic cross section of Italian society, their powerful voices resonating through regional landscapes, private passions and dramatic political events.This wide-ranging selection curated by Jhumpa Lahiri includes well-known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries. More than a third of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, several of them by Lahiri herself.

“"The perfect companion whenever I get around to that trip to Rome." -- Jeva Lange, The Week "An excellent introduction to Italy--a sentimental Baedeker useful for traveling into the mind of a fascinating if elusive nation . . . To have re-discovered, edited, and re-proposed these authors is laudable. But Lahiri went further: she understood them. And she shares a deep appreciation for their common denominator: Italy. . . . This is the real Italy. And The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories demonstrates this better than any travel guide does." -- Beppe Severgnini, Air Mail "A remarkable introduction to Italian literature and a great gift to the English-speaking reader . . . Each story in this volume is a jewel." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "A welcome addition to the shelf of Penguin anthologies of world literature . . . [Lahiri] features women, authors less-known or neglected, and those 'who practiced the short form with particular vehemence and virtuosity.' . . . The Penguin Book of Short Stories may reward the patient listener to the voices of these tellers." -- PopMatters "Jhumpa Lahiri crowns her public turn as an Italophile and translator with [ The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories ]. . . . It could hardly come at a better time, when Elena Ferrante's novels and the American revival of Natalia Ginzburg are igniting new interest in the literary traditions of the Belpaese ." -- Lit Hub "Rich . . . Eclectic . . . A feast . . . Her choice of 40 authors embraces familiar greats and sows them with fascinating additions. . . . They remind us of the short story's playfulness, its ability to move us with unexpected sharpness while it experiments with voices, styles and boundaries." -- The Telegraph "An enticing collection . . . The tales are by turns startling, moving, intriguing and provocative; they bring melancholy, humor and a dose of the uncanny." -- The Times Literary Supplement "Refreshing and surprisingly contemporary . . . A map of Ferrante's hinterland . . . Lahiri has pulled off something quite striking here: a literary anthology that sparkles with invention and variety, makes a remarkably convincing case for the vitality of the modern Italian short story and also beguiles, thanks to her sharp-eyed work as editor, compiler and part-translator. . . . There's a gamut of register--comedy, fantasy, satire, psychological and social realism and more. . . . There are plenty of big hitters--Lampedusa, Svevo, Sciascia, Gadda, Calvino--though they are often represented with nicely unpredictable stories. . . . And there are captivating juxtapositions. . . . Throughout, Lahiri displays deft literary and linguistic touches. She is clearly enjoying this. She provides elegant one-page bios for all forty writers. . . . She writes with compelling force of the dense pluralism of voice in Italian language and literature. Crucially, she also makes a point of championing the extraordinary depth and quality of women's voices." -- Literary Review "This volume, which honors so many writer-translators, is as much a tribute to the Italian short story as it is a validation of the need--aesthetic, political, ethical--for translation itself. . . . Only works in translation can broaden the literary horizon, open doors, break down the wall." -- Jhumpa Lahiri, from the Introduction”

A fantastically rich - and beautiful - anthology that's teaching me a lot -- Chris Power
The best anthology of its kind I've read -- John Self Observer
A feast . . . her choice of 40 authors embraces familiar greats and sows them with fascinating additions . . . they remind us of the short story's playfulness, it's ability to move us with unexpected sharpness while it experiments with voices, styles and boundaries Telegraph
Jhumpa Lahiri has pulled off something quite striking here: a literary anthology that sparkles with invention and variety, makes a remarkably convincing case for the vitality of the modern Italian short story and also beguiles, thanks to her sharp-eyed work as editor, compiler and part-translator. Literary Review
Taken one by one, each story in this volume is a jewel. Taken all together, the book is a remarkable introduction to Italian literature and a great gift to the English-speaking reader. Remarkable stories from a wide range of writers describe the mundane and the fantastic, the everyday and the sublime. Kirkus
An enticing collection . . . a remarkable sample of the literary form . . . the tales are by turns startling, moving, intriguing and provocative; they bring melancholy, humour and a dose of the uncanny. -- Vilma de Gasperin TLS

Jhumpa Lahiri is an award-winning author and translator. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection and was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2015. Her other works of fiction in English include The Lowland, which was a finalist for the Man Booker prize.Lahiri has also written three books directly in Italian, including In altre parole (translated in English as In Other Words) and the novel Dove mi trovo. Her translation of Domenico Starnone's Trick was a Finalist for the National Book Award. She divides her time between Rome and Princeton University, where she is a professor of Creative Writing and Literary Translation

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