“This Darkness Will Never End”
by Edith Bruck
Book presentation with translator
Jeanne Bonner
in conversation with
Prof. Philip Balma Ph.D.
The stunning short story collection—available in English for the first time—that established Edith Bruck as a major figure in Italian literature.
This Darkness Will Never End, the first short story collection by the Hungarian-born author Edith Bruck, was published to acclaim in Italy in 1962. After World War II, Bruck, a Holocaust survivor, settled in Rome where she wrote her fable-like stories, recounting the lives of poor Jewish families in Europe before, during, and immediately following the war. In the title story, believed by some film scholars to have inspired the Oscar-winning movie Life Is Beautiful.
Beautifully translated from the Italian by Jeanne Bonner, these stories offer a glimpse into a bygone world. They testify to the resilience of survivors like Bruck, whom Italian critics initially compared to Anne Frank, deeming her the writer Anne would have become had she survived.
Edith Bruck has written more than twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, many of which reflect her life-long commitment to Holocaust testimony, including Who Loves You Like This (1959, Italian edition; 2001, English edition, Paul Dry Books). She has twice been nominated for the Italian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and her books have been translated into many languages including English, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian, and Hebrew. She lives in Rome.
Jeanne Bonner is a writer, editor and literary translator. She is the translator of This Darkness Will Never End, a short story collection by Italian transnational author Edith Bruck, published by Paul Dry Books (April 2025). She studied Italian at Wesleyan University and has an MFA in Writing from Bennington College as well as an MA in Italian Literature from the University of Connecticut. In literary translation, she focuses on overlooked Italian women writers.
Philip Balma is Associate Professor of Italian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, where he also serves as the Coordinator of the Italian language program. He teaches modern Italian literature and cinema, as well as courses on the Italian American experience.
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