Titles by Italian authors
Elena Ferrante and the late Primo Levi have both made it into
the top 100 books of the year compiled by the New York Times, it
emerged on Monday.
The books in question - The Story of the Lost Child by the
elusive Ferrante (a pseudonym), which is the fourth and final
volume in her quartet of Neapolitan novels, and the complete
works of the Holocaust survivor who committed suicide 28 years
ago - have both been translated into English and curated by Ann
Goldstein, a New Yorker editor and passionate ambassador on
behalf of Italian literature in the United States.
Other Italian authors in her portfolio include novelist
Alessandro Baricco, poet Giacomo Leopardi, and iconic author,
filmmaker and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The Story of the Lost Child competes in the fiction
category alongside Purity by Jonathan Franzen, Submission by
French novelist Michel Houellebecq and How to be Both by
Scottish author Ali Smith.
The Complete Works of Primo Levi, published by Liverlight,
instead appears in the non-fiction category.
"Twenty-eight years after his death the gathering together
of everything that the author published brings into focus the
breadth and coherence of his genius," read a brief note
accompanying the nomination.
Goldstein has won the PEN prize for translation and a
Guggenheim prize, as well as recognition from the Italian
foreign ministry for her work.
Her day job is with New Yorker but she has spent evenings,
nights, weekends and holidays bringing Ferrante's books to
America even before the success of her Neapolitan quartet.
"Books that have been translated rarely receive attention -
and when they do it is rare for the translator to be noted," The
Atlantic magazine wrote recently.
However, the fact that Ferrante has guarded her anonymity
so closely has deflected the growing international curiosity
about her work onto Goldstein.
In Ferrante's world, this dynamic could not be more
perfect, The Atlantic said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
