Do you use Goodreads? Please 'shelve' This Darkness Will Never End!

Now that the book tour is over, I am turning my attention to other ways that I can get my translation into the hands of more readers (more on this in a moment).

What an incredible year it has been! I was able to share my love for Edith Bruck's work with readers, friends and family members in Philadelphia, Boston and New York. For more information, you can read my sum-up of the mini book tour here.

Thank you again all for your kind interest and support. And now I have one more request:

Please "shelve" my translation on Goodreads! 

You can even just put it under the "want to read" status.

OK, maybe two more requests...

If you bought the book on Amazon, please leave a review!

Consider suggesting the book to your book club. You can find a reading guide here.

And of course, you could give the translation as a gift!

I'm continuing to promote the book in ways big and small. For example, I've just published an excerpt of another Bruck title, Two Empty Rooms, which to my mind is a way to promote the book-length translation by dint of promoting the author. Read the excerpt here. Thanks to the editors at Jewish Currents magazine for their kind interest.

I'll be giving a virtual talk about the translation at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and also an-person talk at the Forbes Library in Northampton in the Fall. Details to follow. Thanks for your kind interest!

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'Two Empty Rooms' excerpted in Jewish Currents

Thanks to Jewish Currents magazine, another part of Edith Bruck's body of work has made the journey into English.

The web and print magazine has published an excerpt of Ms. Bruck's Two Empty Rooms (Due Stanze Vuote), which I have translated but which hasn't been published yet in English in its entirety. It complements This Darkness Will Never End.

Ms. Bruck has only published two short story collections but both are stunning and even though they both touch on the "absurd reality" of survival, they do so in different ways. Two Empty Rooms, which was published in 1974 and was a finalist for the prestigious Strega literary prize in Italy, is nothing short of a reckoning with the past. Specifically a Holocaust survivor's past -- which includes a village full of people who did little when she was deported to a Nazi concentration camp.

But as Judith says in the title story, Ms. Bruck isn't here to "accuse" anyone but rather to report, to probe. How is it that human beings can be this way?

The editors at Jewish Currents homed in on some of the most provocative lines in the novella, using them as pull quotes. Namely:

-- "When they took you away, I thought, Finally I won't see them suffering anymore."

-- "A real live Jewish woman! She used to live here."

My thanks to Nathan Goldman, one of the magazine's fine editors who worked closely with me to bring this work into the English-speaking world.

Now what publisher would like to publish the entire collection?

Please take a moment to read the excerpt here.

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'This Darkness Will Never End' at Wesleyan

When I visited Wesleyan in May for my reunion, I went to Olin because Olin is a gorgeous college library where I spent many hours possibly studying but definitely reveling in the joy of college life.

But secretly I was hoping to find a copy of my translation, This Darkness Will Never End.

Which is to say, on the shelf, because I had made a purchase request and Olin kindly consented.

Instead, since I am an alumna and occasional writing instructor, it was out for display.

Complete joy!

In the spot where I first dreamed of translating an Italian book, there I was, with an Italian book I had translated.

Don't count the years. I'm so thrilled to have this book out in the world that I didn't dwell on how long it took me.

I only dwelled on how good it felt to see the book on the display and know how hard I worked so that it could be there.

Thank you, Edith Bruck and Paul Dry!

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