Elsa Morante - Böcker

En av de stora italienska 1900-talsklassikerna

Småskolelärarinnan Ida Ramundo våldtas i sin lägenhet av en tysk soldat och föder sonen Giuseppe. Utanför rasar kriget och Ida är beredd att göra allt för att hennes son ska överleva. Historien [La Storia, 1974] skrevs nästan trettio år efter att Elsa Morante och hennes man Alberto Moravia, båda av judisk börd, tvingats gömma sig i en liten bergsby i södra Italien efter att ha flytt fascisterna i Rom. Utgivningen av Historien - med sitt anti-ideologiska anspråk - stod i stark kontrast mot tidens ideal och upplevdes som ytterst kontroversiell. Samtidigt blev romanen en enorm publiksuccé och sålde i 800.000 exemplar bara första året. I översättning av Anne Marie Hansen och Ingalisa Munck.

ELSA MORANTE [1912-1985] är en av Italiens stora 1900-talsförfattare, i hemlandet ofta kallad enbart för La Morante. Hon gifte sig 1942 med författaren Alberto Moravia och umgicks med många av Italiens ledande tänkare, bland annat Pier Paolo Pasolini, Umberto Saba och Natalia Ginzburg. Till Morantes viktigaste romaner hör Arturos ö [L'isola di Arturo, 1957] och Historien.

'Unsurpassable' Elena Ferrante

'Timeless' John Banville

Young Arturo grows up in isolated freedom on an island in the Bay of Naples, roaming the hills with his dog, sailing and reading tales of mythical heroes.

This idyll is shattered when his father returns home with a new wife, Nunziata. Barely older than Arturo, one of the only women he has ever met, she awakens his fierce longing for tenderness, a longing which draws the family towards a painful reckoning in this powerful story of disillusionment and desire.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Ann Goldstein.

Elsa Morante (1912-1985) was an Italian novelist, short-story writer and poet. Born and raised in Rome, she started writing at a young age, initially publishing short stories in children's journals. Married to the writer Alberto Moravia, she spent much of the Second World War in hiding with him, both having much to fear from the Fascists due to their Jewish heritage and the social and sexual themes explored in their writing. Her first novel, House of Liars, was published in 1948 and won the Viareggio Prize. Arturo's Island, published in 1957, made her the first woman to win the Strega Prize, and in 1974 her novel History became a record-breaking bestseller and confirmed her reputation as one of the most important writers of twentieth-century Italy.

Ann Goldstein is a former New Yorker editor and has won prizes and accolades for her translations of Primo Levi and Elena Ferrante.