Mariateresa Di Lascia is on my mind with Strega season underway!

The Italian literary sphere is in the throes of choosing the best book of the year and that has me thinking of an unusual author (and parliamentarian!) who won the Strega award exactly 30 years ago: Mariateresa Di Lascia. 

The work -- Passaggio in ombra (Italian), "Into the Shadows" (English manuscript) -- presents something that I think is unusual: the perspective of a woman coming undone, told from the woman's point of view. Not a male narrator or author presenting this. 

Di Lascia regrettably died in 1994 after writing a few short stories and completing a lone novel -- this one.

I encountered her work when I was commissioned to write an article for the Literary Hub site about Italian novels that hadn't been translated into English yet -- but should be. 

The novel is a coming-of-age work that is one of many books to light the way for Elena Ferrante (both authors featuring women narrators bucking convention). As I've written before, Di Lascia’s novel analyzes and exalts the interior lives of a group of women buffeted by their limited choices, their unruly desire for freedom and the price they pay for these desires.

I love that the book features an unconventional female narrator. She's not perfect, she's not a devil, she's somewhere in between.

I won a grant from PEN America to jumpstart my translation work on the manuscript but it has yet to find a publisher. 

You can read an excerpt of my translation here.

A line that I love but which isn't in this excerpt is about the narrator's father:

"When he thought about how his life would turn out, what form it would take if indeed it would ever bend itself to a specific shape, he felt something inside of him rebel. As if it would be an unbearable imposition. In those days, he had one lone desire: to preserve for as long as he could -- maybe even forever -- the freedom to have no direction of any kind."

One of the aspects of the work that's so compelling is the array of portraits of women. It's something I wrote about for Ploughshares when I was in the thick of translating the first section of the novel.

https://pshares.org/blog/the-lives-of-women/

It gives us the story not only of the narrator but of the women in her life -- her mother, her aunt, her grandmother -- who navigated a rural, post-war Southern Italian society not ready for gender equity. Di Lascia zeroed in on the mother-daughter relationship, but also tells the tale of a beloved aunt forced to give up a child for adoption -- a decision she never fully accepts. Indeed, one of the most poignant and harrowing moments of the book comes when her aunt reunites with her child; initially, the reader thinks it might be a clandestine meeting with a lover, so intense are the aunt's emotions and so furtive her movements as she plans a reunion others would prefer to suppress.

For Italian literature buffs, the book has the uncanny privilege of mirroring Menzogna e sortilegio by Elsa Morante. Essentially, Di Lascia structured her book so it opens in the exact same way as Morante's masterpiece. 

There's also a volatile father-daughter relationship; indeed Di Lascia didn't stint on men -- they are just as interesting as the female characters. Nuanced, too, even if they are guilty of tormenting the women in their lives. 

I don't know how other translators choose projects but I find certain lines haunt me, and if the haunting doesn't let up, I need to do something about it. Here is one such line, a sentence that frames the beginning of the book, as the narrator begins to tell the tale of her life: 

(Italian): "In questa storia, che mi fu solo raccontata, cerco l'inizio di ogni inganno."

(English): “In this story, which was only told to me, I seek the genesis of all the deception.”

I put her work aside because I received an NEA translation grant to translate stories by Edith Bruck. And now that This Darkness Will Never End has been published, I plan to return to the Di Lascia manuscript and I hope to publish it. 

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'This Darkness Will Never End' reading guide for book clubs

I've written a reading guide for This Darkness Will Never End that I've posted to my professional website and which I'm also pasting here:

Synopsis:

The short story collection, This Darkness Will Never End by Edith Bruck, portrays in colorful detail the lives of poor Hungarian Jews before, during and after World War II, with the Holocaust alternately looming ahead as a fate that can’t be avoided or as the horror that can’t be outrun. The collection, published in English by Paul Dry Books, includes a story that is considered by film scholars to have inspired Robert Benigni's Oscar-winning movie "Life Is Beautiful." Bruck, who was born in Hungary in 1931, settled in Italy after the war and has been writing in Italian for more than a half-century. She is the author of two dozen novels, short story collections, books of poetry and works of nonfiction, many of which touch on her survival of the 20^th century’s worst atrocity. Through her work, Bruck supplies an answer to a critical question: What can women writers tell us about surviving the Holocaust era?

For more information about This Darkness Will Never End, visit Paul Dry Books:

https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/this-darkness-will-never-end

This book is perfect for individuals and book clubs interested in these topics:

*Italian Literature

*World War II Literature

*Jewish Studies, especially Holocaust Studies

*Women’s Studies, including overlooked women authors

*World and Transnational Literature

*Postwar Literature

*Short Works of Fiction

*European History

What the critics said:

 

Invite me on your podcast to talk about This Darkness Will Never End

OK, now my mini book tour is over and I probably won't do any more readings until the Fall, but I always have time to talk about Edith Bruck and This Darkness Will Never End.

Do you have a literary podcast? Maybe even a podcast about history. Or a podcast about Italy, and Italian life. Do you?

This book would lend itself to discussions about:

*Italian fiction

*Holocaust literature

*World War II

*Short story collections

*Translation

*What the NEA has thankfully funded

*And more!

The photo here was taken on the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, where I worked as a statehouse reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting.

It has nothing to do with translation or literary matters but for the podcasters out there, I have audio bona fides! 

Get in touch!

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Scenes from a mini-book tour -- THIS DARKNESS WILL NEVER END

I arranged a small book tour to support the publication of my translation, This Darkness Will Never End, but secretly it was a friends-and-family tour where beloved faces greeted me at every stop.

Philadelphia was the city of brotherly love if by brotherly you mean two of my oldest and dearest friends (Jeanette and Tina), and a cousin (Brendan).

In Boston, one of my best college friends (also my closest Jewish pal and hence a constant muse during the translation) hosted me for the first reading (while also propping up my ego!). Thank you, Michelle! Thanks also to those who attended, including Ellen, a Boston-area translator, and kind friends of Gabriela Block.

On my second go-round in Boston, my sister, Denise (in photo below), and my brother-in-law, Mike, attended, plus one of my dearest and oldest friends -- Beth -- hosted me in addition to attending the reading with her son. 

And in New Jersey not only did my (other) sister, my brother-in-law, and my aunt and uncle come to the reading but a cousin -- MARY KATE!!! -- drove up from D.C. Amazing!

New York reading: another of my oldest and dearest friends attended, plus two translation-world friends, (Jenny and Ann!).

Plus, in West Hartford, not only were Mike and Leo on hand (ready for the 'darkness' to end), but also many of my friends and neighbors! As if this weren't enough, my undergraduate thesis advisor was on hand for my reading in Middletown! Cecilia Miller advised my thesis on Machiavelli and has backed every other professional achievement I've had.

Two of the readings were actually conversations. In New Jersey, I was paired with a local rabbi whose father, like Edith Bruck, was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor! It was an engrossing discussion. And in New York, I invited Philip Balma from the University of Connecticut (above), a scholar of Bruck, to join me. It was wonderful because his knowledge about Edith and her work knows no limits!

In addition to this mighty slate of readings last month, I also attended a college reunion at Wesleyan where I found a copy of my translation on display in Olin Library. I had asked the library to purchase a copy -- you can do that as a faculty member, even an occasional one like me! And they may or may not buy the book. But no one told me it would be on display during my reunion and no one mentioned how humbling that would be (other adjectives: insanely cool, generous, thrilling. Maybe now I can get past ranking near the bottom of my class???).

I haven't even touched on the questions I received -- good ones! A man at Newtonville Books in Boston wanted to know about the evolution of perspectives on writing fiction about the Holocaust. In West Hartford, a member of the audience asked about the dictionaries I liked to use, which allowed me to drone on and on about the large, multi-volume dictionaries at the New York Public Library that not only provide entry upon entry of potential meanings but also instances of usage throughout the history of Italian literature. A word I was puzzling over was first used by Boccaccio in the 1300s, for example!

There were also questions about what aspects of the stories were inspired by Edith's actual experiences of deportation and survival -- in some cases, I didn't know the answer. And maybe I should. I hope to see her this summer -- do I dare ask if classmates yelled "Heil Hitler" outside her window as happens in "Come to the Window, It's Christmas"?

It was also fascinating to see (FEEL!) the reaction of people to a speech Edith wrote that I translated earlier this year and which I read in addition to an excerpt from This Darkness Will Never End.

It's called "My Alma Mater is Auschwitz," and it's as devastating as that title would suggest. It gives a good overview of her life but more importantly, the light that she managed to find in a place of profound darkness, which of course is a perennial theme in her work and yet another reason to admire her. And translate her work.

I don't know how many books I sold. And it matters! Not for my bank account but for the life of the book -- for the possibility of spreading the word about Edith Bruck.

But I think I sold a lot of people on the notion that we should keep gathering together to talk about books, and in particular, we should continue to read the work of Holocaust survivors. We still have so much to learn. Also, why not try a book by an author you don't know at all?

I have been invited to speak at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts in the Fall, and the first invite is virtual so it's open to everyone. I'll post details here and also on social media.

My thanks to all of the venues that hosted me:

I AM Books

Philadelphia Free Library

Newtonville Books

RJ Julia

West Hartford Public Library

Montclair Public Library

Italian Cultural Institute (NYC)

*

My thanks also to everyone at Paul Dry Books -- two of my collaborators were at the reading in Philly!

I hope to be able to speak again about this translation to groups. It would be cool to appear on a podcast! Do I know anyone who hosts a literary podcast? Invite me on!

Fingers crossed there will also be more reviews of the translation. I am grateful for this review from the Jewish Book Council! And this one by Foreword Reviews.

To all who attended the readings, ETERNAL THANKS! You gave up a night or an afternoon, and gave me the thrill of a lifetime. And don't be shy about sharing your opinion or asking questions (either in the comments here or on social media or via email). I loved that question in Boston about the evolution of ideas on fiction about the Holocaust. So astute, and it gives us a chance to situate the work in context -- how it lives in conversation with other works.

The readings, after all, illuminated how we as humans live in conversation with one another about books and life and the history of the world that brings us to this moment in time.

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My Alma Mater Is Auschwitz

During events to present my translation, I decided to read a speech by Edith Bruck that I translated for World Literature Today.

It's called "My Alma Mater is Auschwitz."

And I think it was one of the most effective aspects of the book talks because now people are asking for the link.

Why not? When I first read it three or four years ago, I knew I had to translate it. Edith was deported at age 12 -- childhood effectively over. And then once liberated from the camps, she wandered Europe as a refugee. Her alma mater? Her alma mater is Auschwitz. 

In this speech, which Edith gave to university students in Rome on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate, she speaks about the woman "who learns to make herself invisible in order to gain another day of life." She writes about learning that she will never be like her persecutors.

"I, who graduated with honors from the University of Evil, I learned about goodness. From the cesspit, I extracted gold." 

What gold, you might ask? The golden joy of feeling grateful for even the smallest acts of kindness.

Here's the link again:

https://worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/essay/my-alma-mater-auschwitz-edith-bruck 

Thanks for the kind interest!

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Centro Primo Levi review of THIS DARKNESS WILL NEVER END

Printed Matter, a publication of the Centro Primo Levi, reviewed This Darkness Will Never End, and the reviewer made some wonderful observations about the translation, including one about the way the "absence" of the Holocaust -- the way the stories circle this inferno warily -- "defines the collection." Perceptive passages about the presence of hunger and the cancer of anti-Semitism abound.

In his review, Yuval Jonas also wrote:

"The stories mainly take place in the years before the war, in villages and homes where hunger is ever-present, where children sneak moments of joy, and where the menace of the future looms, still unknown, but closing in. These are stories of childhood—its innocence, inquisitiveness, disappointments—and of parents, overworked and exhausted, but giants in the eyes of their children. In reality, they are just as helpless against history." 

To read the rest of this thorough review, visit:

https://primolevicenter.org/printed-matter/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust-edith-brucks-short-stories

Thanks to Yuval and the Centro Primo Levi for reviewing the translation!

What women survivors can still teach us about the Holocaust

Edith Bruck says living with the memory of the Holocaust is akin to being eternally pregnant with a “demon-child conceived in Auschwitz.”

And during this year, when the world is marking both the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and 80 years since the end of World War II, Bruck’s words and the words of other women who survived the Holocaust are especially worthy of our attention. 

Of the 245,000 survivors left worldwide, 61 percent are women, according to the Claims Conference, which administers German compensation for victims of the Nazis, and only by examining the testimony of women do we have a full picture of the Holocaust.

With such a milestone, much attention will be paid to the words of Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel and other men who after miraculously surviving the Holocaust told tales of their experiences. Understandably so; they were among the first to voice the horror of the concentration camps. 

But I'm thinking of women like Bruck because after I began translating her 1962 short story collection, This Darkness Will Never End, I also researched women survivors and found their perspectives weren’t well-known.

Born in Hungary in 1931, Bruck moved to Italy in the 1950s and began writing in Italian. She remains a vital literary voice in Italy and is a frequent critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even as she shudders at what Hamas has said about Jews.

To a woman like me, her urgent words about the monster festering inside -- which appear in a book called Signora Auschwitz that hasn’t been translated into English -- viscerally convey the horror of the Holocaust in a way few other things have. 

In her book, Letter to My Mother, published in the US in 2006, Bruck describes arriving at Auschwitz at age 13, and being separated from her mother. Bruck painfully recalls that her mother let go of her hand and pushed her away from the line of people headed for immediate death. That last moment spent with her mother likely saved the author’s life – and it mirrors the fate of many women who were deported. They, rather than their husbands, were the ones shepherding children to the concentration camps and they were often forced to make difficult decisions like the one her mother made.

It made me wonder: What else can women survivors tell us?

A lot, as I learned during my research into Italian women survivors. They suffered the same persecution by the Nazis as the men who were deported -- and also pregnancies that had to be concealed and the fear of sexual assault. In fact, Levi believed women faced harsher conditions at Auschwitz than many men. 

Through the eyes of women, the events of the Holocaust can take on a different cast. For example, few Americans are aware of the notorious women’s prison, Ravensbrück, but it’s the focus of two books by Lidia Beccaria Rolfi, neither of which have been translated. She was a political prisoner so she was spared the brutal discrimination faced by Jews, but she did risk being raped during the long postwar journey home, when she and other liberated prisoners sheltered in an abandoned concentration camp. Escorted by American GIs, Rolfi couldn’t circulate freely for fear of predatory soldiers. As Rolfi wrote, any kind of woman would do for a quick conquest by some soldiers, “even the skeletal ones, even the little girls.”

Other books by women that have been published in the US have fallen out of print, unable to dislodge or even complement better-known testimony by men. Or in some cases, the ideas of women survivors have been overlooked altogether. 

Millions of American movie-goers, for example, are familiar with an idea from a story by Bruck where the barbaric reality of Nazi deportation is artfully concealed from a young boy. Prominent film historians (including Yale's Millicent Marcus) and Italian literature scholars believe that plot twist contributed to Roberto Benigni’s 1997 Oscar-winning film, “Life is Beautiful,” although it’s uncredited. 

Women’s experiences, according to scholar Joan Ringelheim, “are rarely central to the presentation of a ‘typical’ Holocaust story.” And yet, as she wrote in a 1999 anthology published by Yale University Press, Women in the Holocaust, “Jewish women carried the burdens of sexual victimization, pregnancy, abortion, childbirth, killing of newborn babies in the camps to save the mothers, care of children, and many decisions about separation from children.” 

Bruck’s story reminds me that new atrocities don’t supplant old ones. She doesn’t support what she called “an endless war against the Palestinians,” in an interview with the Italian online news site, Il Fatto Quotidiano. But nothing that happens today changes the fact that she was unnecessarily seized from her home in the Spring of 1944 and taken on a treacherous journey that ultimately left her parentless and without a homeland. 

And of course, I think often of Anne Frank, whose diary was certainly not written by a man. The young Dutch girl’s story is known the world over. Less known is that when Bruck’s first book appeared in Italy, five years after The Diary of Anne Frank had been published, Italian critics deemed Bruck the kind of writer Anne would have become had she survived. 

We’ll never know exactly what Anne endured before she died in a German concentration camp. And we already know what many men suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It’s time we listened to what women who survived have to say.

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Foreword review of THIS DARKNESS WILL NEVER END: 'Masterful'

Thanks to the Foreword Reviews for publishing a wonderful review of This Darkness Will Never End.

The reviewer calls the collection "masterful" and notes that the stories "are poignant and crafted with subtle humor, compassion, and unsparing observations."

Review Meg Nola goes on to say, “Written with a sense of anguished history and oppressed vitality, This Darkness Will Never End is a compelling short story collection.”

Foreword Reviews focuses on books published by indie presses. According to its website, FR is dedicated to the "art" of reviewing books. Amen!

This is at least the third review of the translation by a publication, including reviews by the Jewish Book Council and Printed Matter (from the Centro Primo Levi). I'm grateful for the attention!

Read the full review here:

https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/this-darkness-will-never-end/

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May 28: Italian Cultural Institute (NYC) book launch for This Darkness Will Never End

I'm thrilled to say I'll be presenting my translation of Edith Bruck's short stories, This Darkness Will Never End, at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, adjacent to the consulate.

And I will be in conversation with Prof. Philip Balma from UCONN who wrote Edith Bruck in the Mirror: Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives.

I've been on a mini-book tour this Spring, and the final stop, for now, is the home of Italian culture in New York. Join us!

Details:

Date: Wed., May 28

Time: 6 p.m.

Place: Italian Cultural Institute, 686 Park Avenue, NY, NY

Note: Copies of the translation will be on sale but cash is preferred

For more information, please visit:

https://iicnewyork.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/this-darkness-will-never-end-book-presentation/ 

What I bought at I AM Books (Boston)

I don't get to visit Italian bookstores often because well, I live in America and there aren't many Italian bookstores here (more French bookstores I would say, and I say that with envy).

So when I had a reading at I AM Books in Boston, I had to make a few purchases, including the cute little book you see here, which was a gift for the Little Italian Language Learner.

I felt like it might contain a curse or two and that ranks very high on Leo's list of things he wants to master!

Italian curses!

I also bought a cookbook for Mike, a special edition of Calvino's Invisible Cities and a Natalia Ginzburg book because I now know I need to read something by Ginzburg every year -- I need to, and I simply do. This year all kinds of new Ginzburg books, perhaps because I've accepted the full-blown obsession and place her, oddly, in some ways, next to Sciascia, Fitzgerald and Joyce, three authors I frequently re-read (I suppose I could add Dickens to the list, since I re-read A Christmas Carol every year, but I digress).

The bookstore is in Boston's North End, the traditional Italian quarter, and I have to say it has a very nice selection of Italian books (i.e., decent size), both for adults and children, plus American books and all kinds of gift items I didn't have enough time to peruse.

I AM Books

124 Salem Street

Boston, Mass.

iambooksboston.com 

Newtonville Books is book heaven

I had the honor of reading at Newtonville Books in the Boston area yesterday and I am slightly mad at the words I am writing because they sound so tired and trite. 

If I tell you I felt like I fell asleep reading and then woke up in book heaven, would that convey how delicious this bookstore is? Somehow the space is carved into the side of a glorious old stone church, making it feel like a book cave in the interior but also a book sunroom in the storefront part on the street that's full of windows. And they have every book you want, and also those books you didn't know you wanted, and the special composition notebooks and lovely bookmarks and a spacious children's section.

And Mary Cotton, the owner, is a Book Saint! (thanks to husband Jaime for the invite to the store).

And the folks that came -- my family, one of my oldest friends and her son, fellow Bennington alums, and one random guy who asked a very astute question about the evolution of theories on writing fiction about the Holocaust -- were delightful!

(And, side note: the porridge at Johnny's Luncheonette is surprisingly delicious!)

So a perfect day, thanks to Newtonville Books and the wonderful people I've come to know in my life!

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What literary translation taught me about World War II

During a 2018 trip to Italy, I found myself face to face with history. I was meeting with a woman who had once come before the notorious Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele. At only 13 years of age, she’d managed to elude his attention during a treacherous prisoner selection process in Auschwitz.

The woman was Edith Bruck, considered the most prolific Italian author to write about the Holocaust by scholars, and I was at her apartment because I’d begun to translate her short stories, which are based on her experiences of Nazi persecution. She was deported from her native Hungary in 1944. I was stunned to learn that although she’d lost both of her parents and a brother to the concentration camps, she harbored no hatred.

After she was liberated, she began telling the world what she’d seen to fulfill a pledge made to dying prisoners. And after I met Ms. Bruck, I vowed to tell her story by translating as much of her work as I could.

This year marks eight decades since World War II ended, and there have been various commemorations, including May 8, the 80^th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. I wasn’t alive during the war, and my parents were small children at the time, living in the New York area. None of my relatives served in combat in World War II. But I’ve grown up in a world shaped by the conflict – we all have. And as I’ve translated Ms. Bruck’s work, I’ve begun to devour books about the Holocaust specifically and World War II in general. I’ve concluded I’ll never know enough about the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century or the sacrifices made by so many during World War II. So, I’ll keep reading.

In a speech called “My Alma Mater Is Auschwitz,” that Ms. Bruck gave to college students, the Hungarian-born Italian author said living in concentration camps taught her three things: “You’ll never be a racist, [or] a fascist; you’ll never discriminate against anyone; and you’ll never be like your persecutors.” Many Americans who fought the Nazis learned that lesson, too.

Bruck’s story reminds me that new tragedies don’t displace old ones. She has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, and she vehemently opposes what she termed in an interview with the Italian news site, Il Fatto Quotidiano “an endless war against the Palestinians.” But nothing that happens today changes the fact that she and six million others were violently evicted from their lives and taken on a cruel journey that in her case left her parentless and stateless.

For all of our advances in this modern age, it often feels as though we forget the lessons so painstakingly learned by those who came before us. The past is always getting rediscovered, but sometimes too late.

Rediscovery, as it turns out, is part of a literary translator’s job description. That’s because translators routinely unearth works of literature from past decades that have been overlooked. In addition, translators often introduce into their native languages authors celebrated in one country but virtually unknown in another.

That’s true in Ms. Bruck’s case; she’s a living legend in Italy, and at 94, one of the last great chroniclers of the Holocaust. Her work has been translated into French, German and Spanish. Pope Francis insisted on meeting her to pay homage to her work bearing witness. And although she isn’t a household name here, millions of American movie-goers are familiar with one of her stories because it’s considered the basis by film scholars and literary critics of Roberto Benigni’s 1997 Oscar-winning film, “Life is Beautiful.”

Literary translation can sometimes feel like a magic trick. You reveal a text that until the moment it’s published in English has been a hidden treasure, locked away in a foreign language. But in my work translating Edith Bruck’s stories, what’s revealed has been hidden in plain sight. We all learned about the Nazis, right?

Yes and no, it turns out. In this digital age, information is so ubiquitous that we’re all drowning in it. To be sure, many stories about World War II have been told, and decades of commemorations have taken place.

But the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe forces us all to think about our history. Can we live up to the example set by previous generations? What actions will we take to fight tyranny now?

The outlook can at times appear bleak. Many people don’t seem to know or care about these lessons. But if some among us want to coerce the human race into repeating the mistakes of our forefathers, authors like Edith Bruck are here to remind us all of the atrocities of our past. And even when Ms. Bruck is no longer with us, her translators will carry on that sacred work. Because we know which side of history we want to be on and it’s not Mengele’s side. 

The National Endowment for the Arts enriches our lives

I know firsthand how important the National Endowment for the Arts is because the agency awarded me a grant that covered a large percentage of the costs associated with translating This Darkness Will Never End. 

I will be forever grateful to the NEA that its judges saw the merit of my project and my translation sample, a short story by Edith Bruck set during World War II that imagined a young German boy -- the son of a Nazi official -- rescuing a Jewish stowaway and taking her home. 

Edith Bruck is an important literary figure in Italy, and is considered by scholars the most prolific writer of Holocaust narrative working in Italian. The NEA knows the value of this!

The collection is now published (see link above; it's been reviewed by the Jewish Book Council, among other outlets) and it also includes other stories about Jewish families struggling as the specter of the Holocaust looms ahead, or later, postwar, remembering the dark horror of destruction that took nearly everyone and everything.

I'm also thoroughly impressed with how the agency goes about its work. I applied twice. When my first application was rejected, the staff told me I was eligible to talk by phone with the NEA to learn what the judges recommended if I wanted to re-apply. They made wonderful suggestions -- because the NEA is invested in any work of art with merit and a translation of Edith Bruck's work is always worthy of consideration -- and I incorporated the ideas into my second successful application.

So now, American readers have the opportunity to explore the lost world of Hungarian Jews through the stories found in This Darkness Will Never End, Edith Bruck's first short story collection. American readers can immerse themselves in the perspective of a survivor, inspired to create fiction that grapples with the unending sorrow stemming from losing both parents and a brother to the Holocaust.

It's fiction that scholars believe inspired Roberto Benigni when he filmed his Oscar-winning movie, "Life is Beautiful." Millions of Americans have seen that film -- and now they can read the story that helped inspire Benigni and perhaps get to know the author, a living legend in Italy.

And again, where are the NEA funds going?

In my case, to pay for the translation of this lost Italian Jewish classic. To provide a stipend to me so I could work on the translation and not translate the book for free (something that translators often do, since to pitch a project to a publisher or submit a grant application, they need a sample of the book in question).

Now the stories of this wonderful Italian author -- whom Pope Francis insisted on meeting to pay homage -- are available in English for the first time.

You can learn more about my project and the support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts here and you can also learn about other translations supported by the NEA here.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who work at the NEA!

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Happy birthday to Edith Bruck: 'My Author'

May 3 is Edith Bruck's birthday. Edith, or "my author."

That's how I refer to her, more often than not.

And I am here to wish her a happy (early) birthday.

This photo was taken in 2022 when we met for a second time at her apartment in Rome.

I'm eager to see her again so we can look through This Darkness Will Never End together!

Edith turns 94 this year! Whenever I call or email her, she tells me about her current projects. She's always working on something. She's also frequently quoted in the newspapers and she's appeared on Italian television hundreds of times (she worked in TV earlier in her career). All of this to say, her creativity and industriousness don't ever stop. She's constantly inspired by this world, even though it conspired against her and "swallowed up" her parents, her brother, her way of life.

If you want to learn more about Edith Bruck, go here.

If you want to read a sample of my translation, you can find a story called "Silvia" published in translation by Hunger Mountain here.

If you want to read some of Edith's poems, go here.

If you want to read about women survivors such as Edith Bruck and how their stories have been overlooked, take a look at this article I wrote for the American Scholar.

Tanti auguri a Edith!

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Jewish Book Council on This Darkness Will Never End

I'm thrilled to say the influential and authoritative Jewish Book Council has published a review of This Darkness Will Never End, and it's an exceptionally perceptive review.

Reviewer Eleanor Foa called the collection an "impressive book of short stories."

Among the highlights, this spot-on observation:

"This Dark­ness Will Nev­er End does not direct­ly depict the Holo­caust. Instead, this col­lec­tion of fable-like tales plunges us into the lives of poor, rur­al, Jew­ish fam­i­lies — most­ly from the point of view of women and chil­dren — before, dur­ing, and after the war. We know their future, but they do not. This van­ished world is vivid­ly ren­dered and incred­i­bly poignant, par­tic­u­lar­ly because of what is inferred." 

To read the full review, go here:

https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/this-darkness-will-never-end 

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Ciambellina reads at Boston's Italian bookstore

Tonight! I'll be reading at I AM Books in Boston.

That's Beantown's Italian bookstore!

A place I've long wanted to visit (and where I expect I will stock up on all kinds of Italian books).

Nicola, who owns the store, was the first bookseller to graciously agree to host me so I could spread the word about This Darkness Will Never End.

And he did a beautiful job with the flyer!

I look forward to speaking to Boston's Italophiles about this 1962 Italian short story classic, and the woman behind it, Edith Bruck. At 93, she continues to be an important voice in Italy's literary world.

To register, visit this link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jeanne-bonner-presents-this-darkness-will-never-end-tickets-1329961293029 

A translation is born -- publication day is here!

Today is the day! My first book-length translation is officially published. This Darkness Will Never End, my translation of Edith Bruck's first short story collection, is out in the world.

And it arrives in bookstores 30 years after I first expressed a desire to translate an Italian book.

I type those words hesitantly because it surely isn't a boast. How could it have taken me three decades to reach this goal?

Well, journalism got in the way. That's one excuse. Oh and before that: Italy! I was having too much fun living in Italy as an ex-pat after college to translate an actual Italian book. (Fear and cowardice are two more excuses).

And to be honest, seven years have passed since I first read the original work, Andremo in città, and began translating one of the stories. Seven years since I felt what I describe as a lightning bolt sensation: these stories need to be available in English.

Seven years in which I began to occasionally teach at Wesleyan University (my alma mater) and penned obituaries for CNN while Leo learned to curse in Italian, finished elementary school, began middle school and decided his parents aren't all that sharp (he, however, was sharp enough one day to ask me when there would be a book whose cover read, "Translated by Jeanne Bonner." Today, my son! Because when you were born, I was reborn.)

(On a practical note, seven years slipped by during which many publishers I'd deemed suitable rejected the manuscript; how many hours I poured into reading the back catalogs of publishers and crafting proposals tailor-made for them!)

But the wait is now over -- and the apprenticeship has been served.

Learning Italian has been one of the thrills of my life. It's a milestone that I connect to some of the other formative moments of my life -- including translating sections of the Aeneid in Latin class at St. Anthony's High School on Long Island.

In fact, the first words of literature that I can remember translating weren't in Italian. They were: "Arma virumque cano..." (the legendary opening words of Virgil's Aeneid." Among the flurry of tasks that I completed to introduce the translation, I sent a copy to the library at St. Anthony's.) 

As I celebrate the "book birthday" for my translation, I am preparing for a series of readings, beginning with an event at I AM Books in Boston, Beantown's Italian bookstore. And I've been heartened by all of the kind attention people have lavished on this little translation, including a very perceptive review from the Jewish Book Council.

The translation is dedicated to Edith's father because that's the epigraph she'd written for the original manuscript. But if I could write a dedication, I would mention all of the small moments that led to the publication -- reaching all the way back to the little girl in elementary school who insisted on keeping a notebook and revealed her love of writing to her teachers by scribbling a poem about Harriet Tubman on the back of an assignment. (I would also of course want to recognize the precious readers who won't be able to provide any feedback but who quite literally escorted me to this moment in my life: my parents and Liz).

As I've said before, the book I've birthed into English, like all of the short stories and poetry that I've translated and published, is not coincidentally by a woman author. Thanks to Paul Dry Books for continuing to invest in Edith Bruck, an important transnational Italian writer!

The task of revising, polishing, proofing and publishing a translated book is the proverbial labor of love. And I'm thrilled it's a translation of a book by a woman.

Translate women.

It's all I've done in the seven years that I've been translating Italian literature.

While I studied Italian in college and read Italian literature in the decades following my graduation, I only stumbled into literary translation after earning an MFA and seeing the literary field as a potential home not only for my original writing but also for translated works of literature. Specifically works written by Italian women writers that I could smuggle into English.

Literary translators are often gold prospectors. They discover treasures that for English-speaking readers remain buried in another language.

This book expands the number of works by Italian women authors in English. It adds to the collection of books by Holocaust survivors available in English. And while it's a work of fiction, it nonetheless increases our understanding of the specific hardships women who were deported by the Nazis faced.

It has been a long journey and while I have many regrets, I have embraced my penchant for being a late bloomer. Only in the past 10 years have I completed any graduate school degrees (two, in fact, two decades after leaving college); or written for The New York Times; or applied for important grants (I won a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship to translate Edith's stories).

I was even late to becoming a mother! 

If I stop to think of the time I squandered (as Philip Larkin said, "time/torn off unused"), I get discouraged – so I don’t allow myself to dwell on that. Instead, I keep busy by setting goals, and taking steps to reach them. I am proud to be a lifelong learner. I won’t ever compete in the Olympics but as I look to future achievements, I say it’s never too late (to write my own book, for example). 

Ever since Leo was born, I've viewed obstacles, achievements and hard work in a completely different way. Obstacles remain challenging for me, to be sure, but they call on me to work hard and I've now truly learned the Gospel of consistently working hard to achieve a goal.

Perhaps it's helped that I returned to the beginning -- my girlhood love of writing, of keeping notebooks. Plus, connecting deeply to someone else: the story of Edith Bruck I proudly carry into the English-speaking world, as I've carried the stories of my parents, my relatives, my friends. What's elemental remains for me enthralling -- discovery, language, connection, extrapolation, figuring something out.

In conclusion, thank you for your kind interest.

And happy book birthday to This Darkness Will Never End!

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Come to a reading of 'This Darkness Will Never End'!

(UPDATED) As the official publication date (Apr. 22) of my translation approaches, I bring news of several readings I'll be doing in the Northeast, starting this month. 

I'd also like to share information about buying This Darkness Will Never End if your TBR pile can stand another title! (Links to the usual purchase points are below).

And now that my translation is published, I'm looking to see if there are literary (or history) podcasts that will host me. 

Do you have a podcast? I'm a chatster so the podcast will literally conduct itself.  

(It goes without saying if you have a radio show that covers the arts or books, I'd love to be a guest! I don't mean to single out podcasts -- I'd love to talk about this book wherever there are people who want to know about it).

First, the readings (click on link for details, if available):

Thu., April 24 – I AM Books (Italian bookstore) (Boston) -- DONE!

Mon., May 5 – Philadelphia City Institute Library  -- NEXT!

Wed., May 7 -- RJ Julia (Middletown, Conn.)

Sun., May 18 – Newtonville Books (Boston)

 

Wed., May 21 – West Hartford Public Library 

 

Tues., May 27 – Montclair Public Library (NJ)

Wed., May 28 -- Italian Cultural Institute (NYC)

I've begun to assemble notes for the introduction I'll give at each reading, and in some ways it's hard to know where to begin. What do I want to say about Edith Bruck, the author? And what's the most important aspect of the story of this translation?

Is it that this work captures the thoughts and fictionalized experiences of a Holocaust survivor, namely Edith?

Is it the notion that treasures remain buried in the untranslated book pile?

Is it the fact that the title story almost certainly inspired Roberto Benigni's 1997, Oscar-winning film, "Life Is Beautiful"?

Or do I say something about A.I.? I am embarrassed to say I find literary translation very hard! The work required to complete this book-length translation was monumental -- translating, re-translating, revising, proofing, having someone else look over what I'd done, revising again.

I've neglected to say anything about the plots of the stories, which include a young Jewish girl who's rescued by a boy whose father is a Nazi, and a young woman who's forced to live with a distant aunt after World War II swallows up her family, and she finds solace in French poetry.

So much I'd like to say. As I mentioned above, maybe someone could invite me on a podcast!

HOW TO BUY

The book will be officially published on April 22 but you can order it directly from the publisher and it will be shipped to you immediately:

https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/this-darkness-will-never-end

Or you can buy it from Bookshop:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/this-darkness-will-never-end/21622230

Amazon has it, too.

https://www.amazon.com/This-Darkness-Will-Never-End/dp/1589882016

Thanks to everyone who has bought the book or cheered me on! You have contributed to bringing the stories of Edith Bruck to a wider audience.

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Jeanne on a podcast talking about writing

I'm embarrassed to say I forgot about this! But the kind folks at the Personal Element Podcast featured my New York Times' essay about recording Leo on their podcast.

https://personalelementpodcast.com/episode-1-lorem-ipsum/

It was their very first episode. Since then, they've featured a number of writers, including Rachel Zemach and Diana Xin. What's cool is the hosts talk about your essay. It exists separately from you!

Link to original essay here.

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Rose Girone, the oldest known Holocaust survivor, dies at 113 (CNN)

My first published obituary for CNN -- and I'm proud to say it is one I pitched, and one I knew we had to have.

Rose Girone survived both German and Japanese persecution, and managed to live eight decades beyond  the end of World War II.

Girone was one of about 10 pre-written obits I completed. Thanks to the USC Shoah Foundation, I was able to watch hours of interviews with Girone where she matter-of-factly described the treatment she endured first in Germany, as a young pregnant wife, and later as a refugee in China, under Japanese domination.

It's a rare instance where elements of my two part-time gigs converged: editing for CNN and researching the Holocaust for my literary translation work.

Read the full obit here: 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/us/rose-girone-obit

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Birthday journal

Normally for my birthday, I record an entry in my digital journal. A habit whose name in shorthand is, 'Birthday Journal.' Just a diary entry designed to note and provide my mental temperature for future me, who will be re-reading Birthday Journal entries to revisit, to reminisce, to relive.

And I intend to continue with the tradition but I also decided to do something else this year.

I am feeling particular vulnerable this birthday and so I am reaching for my security blanket -- writing. The writing I've managed to produce AND publish. It's a selfish exercise -- safely indulged perhaps only on one's birthday or death bed, and not sure about the former -- but perhaps it could shed a bit of light for those similarly vulnerable this year for any kind of reason.

So here are bits of of my own writing that fill me with pride, and which are not behind a paywall that I can't scale (the links to the pieces for The New York Times are gift articles):

About motherhood (The New York Times):

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/well/family/recording-the-sound-of-my-childs-voice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.104.mPll.Ay79fdY7jDCL&smid=url-share

About issues of great personal interest, including our Down Syndrome friends (NYT):

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/well/family/in-toy-ads-and-on-the-catwalk-models-with-down-syndrome.html?unlocked_article_code=1.104.cPce.3-6WkMS7lv1k&smid=url-share

About grief (Brevity):

https://themillions.com/2023/01/the-books-that-made-my-father.html

About the glorious 1980s!!! (CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/entertainment/brat-pack-documentary-mccarthy-cec/index.html

About dogs! (namely Caramel!)

https://brevity.wordpress.com/2020/11/25/the-dog-journal/

About language and its intoxicating ways (The Millions):

https://themillions.com/2023/11/the-quiet-exhilaration-of-reading-in-italian.html

Thank you all for your support!

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This Darkness Will Never End -- Publication date! And pre-order link!

One day, Leo spotted a book in translation on a shelf in our house. Looking at the cover where the translator's name appeared, he said, "When will we see a book that says, 'Translated by Jeanne Bonner'?" 

Today, my son. Today! (Because when you were born, I was reborn.)

A box of copies of my translation, This Darkness Will Never End, arrived today. So it's real! I can scarcely imagine the joy you'd feel if you published a book of your own writing. I am elated to bring out the work of another writer through my translating hand but I would guess seeing your own thoughts published in a book would make you (=me) weak in the knees.

Nothing is really like birthing a baby but, wow, birthing a book is also a long, tense, task-filled process!

It's been 7 years since I first read Edith Bruck's short story collection, Andremo in città. Seven years since I felt that lightning bolt: these stories need to be available in English. And now they are.

Thanks to those of you asking about how to buy a copy of my translation.

The book will be officially published on April 22 but you can order it directly from the publisher (Paul Dry Books) and it will be shipped to you immediately:

https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/this-darkness-will-never-end

Or you can buy it from Bookshop:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/this-darkness-will-never-end/21622230

Amazon has it, too.

https://www.amazon.com/This-Darkness-Will-Never-End/dp/1589882016

Give me feedback if you encounter a problem. I am not sure when Amazon or Bookshop will ship the book.

Readings

I'll be reading from the book at various libraries and bookstores in the Northeast, including:

Philadelphia City Institute Library

May 5

5:30 p.m.

Stay tuned for other readings!

I hope to reach a lot of people through events. Are you part of a group that would like to host me? Is your book club looking to read a lost Italian/Jewish classic short story collection? Let me know!

If you're interested in learning more about Edith Bruck or finding other examples of her work in English, keep reading.

I wrote an article for the journal, The American Scholar, on overlooked women writers who have borne witness to the Holocaust that features Edith:

https://theamericanscholar.org/the-forgotten-writers-of-the-shoah/

I've translated some of her poems, including one that made it into The American Scholar's Read-Me-a-Poem podcast:

https://theamericanscholar.org/at-the-american-express-office-by-edith-bruck/

More poetry here, published by Asymptote Journal in 2020:

https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/edith-bruck-versi-vissuti/

You can also read one of the stories from This Darkness Will Never End -- “Silvia.” It won a prize and was published in Hunger Mountain:

https://hngrmtn.org/issues/hunger-mountain-27/translation/

You can also read her other books in English: Who Loves You Like This and Lost Bread (also published by Paul Dry Books of Philadelphia) or Letter to My Mother (published by MLA Publications).

Grazie di cuore!

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What I bought at Rizzoli (Jan. 2025)

I had to travel light when a few weeks ago I visited Rizzoli, my favorite bookstore in New York City: so just two books. But the one by Donatella Di Pietrantonio? (Borgo Sud) Pinch me! -- I had actually met her that day as part of the Multipli Forti Italian literature conference organized by the Italian Cultural Institute, NYU, Fordham and Rizzoli, among other organizations.

As for Un bene al mondo, by Andrea Bajani, well, I am still limping after immersing myself in his novel, Se consideri le colpe, (stunning English translation by Elizabeth Harris, "If You Kept a Record of Sins," published by Archipelago). It's about a boy whose jet-setting mother largely abandons him to pursue a career -- and a love life away from her husband -- in Romania. I can only hope this new title by Bajani offers slightly less anguish, otherwise I won't recover.

I must admit -- having just reviewed a new Patrick Modiano novel for the Boston Globe -- that I fleetingly eyed the French section. As the Rizzoli shopping bags proudly proclaim, the bookstore carries books in Italian, English AND French!

I'm sure some visit the store because it is stunningly elegant.

Others may visit the store because it is a short block from Eataly, or because it's on a wonderfully tranquil block of Broadway that more or less deadends into Madison Square Park.

And, of course, the shop has dozens of book-adjacent gift items -- the most incredible journals, for example. (And sometimes La Settimana Enigmistica).

But I go for the foreign books, and one day, I am going to give into my urge to buy French books, too!

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