July 6, 2018
The Little Virtues
Natalia Ginzburg
Translated by Dick Davis
Taking it Personally
– Natalia Ginzburg was a 20th Century Italian writer, activist and
politician. The 11 essays in this collection were written between 1944 and
1960, when Ginzburg lived, under fascist rule, in impoverished Pizzoli and, later, in dingy, post-war London
neighborhoods. Natalia’s first husband, Leone Ginzburg, was a Resistance leader
who had been tortured and murdered in 1944 by the fascist police, dying in the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. Rather than
focus on war or politics, these particular essays explore the personal:
parenthood, friendship, worn-out shoes, writing, and silence. Each is powerful
in its apparent simplicity; taken together, they create a stunning portrait of
one piece, at one time, of Ginzburg’s life.

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