There's No Turning Back

Alba de Céspedes (1911-97) was a bestselling Italian-Cuban novelist, poet and screenwriter. The granddaughter of the first President of Cuba, de Céspedes was raised in Rome. Married at 15 and a mother by 16, she began her writing career after her divorce at the age of 20. She worked as a journalist throughout the 1930s while also taking an active part in the Italian partisan struggle, and was twice jailed for her anti-fascist activities. After the fall of fascism, she founded the literary journal Mercurio and went on to become one of Italy's most successful and most widely translated authors. Forbidden Notebook and Her Side of the Story are also available from Pushkin Press.Ann Goldstein is a former editor at the New Yorker. She has translated works by Elena Ferrante, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Alessandro Baricco. She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reading Alba de Céspedes was, for me, like breaking into an unknown universe: social class, feelings, atmosphere