On the occasion of the publication of “The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories” the Italian Cultural Institute welcomes Jhumpa Lahiri, editor of the volume, in conversation with Stefano Albertini, Director of Casa Italiana at NYU. The talk is in collaboration with Penguin Random House and Rizzoli Bookstore.
A landmark collection of stories selected and introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri. This collection brings together forty writers who have shaped Lahiri’s love of the Italian language and profound appreciation for its literature. More than half of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, and the wide-ranging selection includes well-known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante, and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating rediscoveries.
Born in London, to Bengali family, who relocated to Rhode Island when she was just a child, author Jhumpa Lahiri published her debut volume in 1999, Interpreter of Maladies, winning the Pulitzer Prize. She followed up in 2003 with her first novel, The Namesake, and returned to short stories with the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri’s 2013 novel, The Lowland, was partially inspired by real-world political events. Lahiri is renowned for the finesse and poignancy of her prose, with the ability to subtly, mesmerizingly build an emotional connection to characters.
The author, who now resides in Italy with her family, has traced her infatuation with the Italian language to a trip to Florence, a vacation with her sister, back in 1994. In In Altre Parole (In Other Words) her first publication in Italian, in 2015, she described some of the creative struggles and rewards of the choice to live in a foreign world and to write in foreign words. Immersing herself in Italian, Lahiri has spoken of observing changes in her own writing style, feeling a sense of freedom in relating to a different language.
The Week of the Italian Language in the World, is under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and is an event promoted yearly by Italy’s cultural and diplomatic network abroad in the third week of October. This 19th edition’s main theme is “Italian language on the stage”: one full week enriched by book presentations and staged reading where language and literature will be at the centre of the scene.
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Jhumpa Lahiri will also appear at the Symphony Space, NY on November 7 hosting the long running series Selected Shorts.
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