Jhumpa Lahiri’s rich and varied selection of the greatest Italian writing of the twentieth century, now a Penguin Classics paperback

This landmark collection brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy’s vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century.

Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators- the writers that inhabit these pages represent a dynamic cross section of Italian society, their powerful voices resonating through regional landscapes, private passions and dramatic political events.

This wide-ranging selection curated by Jhumpa Lahiri includes well-known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries. More than a third of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, several of them by Lahiri herself.