Publisher Marigold Atkey and journalist Emily Rhodes join us for a discussion of Lessico famigliare, Natalia Ginzburg's novelistic memoir or autobiographical novel, first published in Italy in 1963 and most recently translated by Jenny McPhee as Family Lexicon (Daunt/NYRB). Ginzburg had a long and distinguished career in Italian literature, theatre and politics. This episode explores her fascinating life and asks why her work is finding new readers and admirers in the 21st century, amongst them Rachel Cusk and Sally Rooney. Also in this episode John enjoys How To Gut a Fish (Bloomsbury), a debut collection of short stories by Shelia Armstrong; while Andy reflects on Vashti Bunyan's pilgrimage to the Outer Hebrides, as recounted in Wayward (White Rabbit), her memoir of the 1960s and beyond.

Books mentioned:

Natalia Ginzburg - Family Lexicon (translated by Jenny McPhee); The Little Virtues (translated by Dick Davis); Voices in the Evening (translated by D.M. Low); The Dry Heart (translated by Frances Frenaye); All Our Yesterdays (translated by Angus Davidson); Valentino & Sagittarius (translated by Avril Bardoni)
Vashti Bunyan - Wayward
Sheila Armstrong - How to Gut a Fish
Tove Ditlevsen - Childhood, Adulthood, Dependency: the Copenhagen Trilogy (translated by Tiina Nunnally & Michael Favala Goldman)
Gerald Durrell - My Family & Other Animals
Giorgio Bassani - The Garden of the Fonzi-Continis (translated by Jamie MacKendrick)
Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend - Book 1 in the Neapolitan Trilogy (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Donatella Di Pietrantonio - A Girl Returned (translated by Ann Goldstein)

Other links:

Emily Rhodes’ Walking Book Club
Old Memories
Colm Tóibín on Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg interview on Italian TV, 1964
Pier Paolo Pasolini - The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964)