"The Reading Room" is a special virtual place where to share inspiring reading tips.

Every month – from January to June – the Italian Cultural Institute suggests Italian modern classics and contemporary literature. The Reading Room aims to be a different way to present books. Anecdotes, quotes and curiosities accompany a brief presentation of the plot and the author.

This third episode is dedicated to "Cinque storie ferraresi" by Giorgio Bassani, the Italian writer who defintely put Ferrara on the map.
All his works are set here, like the five short-stories in “Cinque storie ferraresi” (“Innanför stadsmuren”), published in 1956. These stories are about a young woman who is abandoned by her husband, a Jewish doctor who marries a low-class nurse, a man who has survived concentration camp and unexpectedly comes back home, and a pharmacist who perhaps has witnessed the killing of some partisans during the war. However, the protagonist of the book is the city and its ancient walls. Ferrara is depicted like a small microcosm, where Christians used to live together with Jews, where poor workers lived not far from wealthy bourgois and facists lived next door with anti-fascists.

“Cinque storie ferraresi” was published in Sweden in 2020 by the publishing house Modernista, translated by Johanna Hedenberg with the title “Innanför stadsmuren”.

Buona lettura e buon ascolto!

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