Among the masters of twentieth-century literature, Giorgio Bassani and
his northern Italian hometown of Ferrara "are as inseparable as James
Joyce and Dublin or Italo Svevo and Trieste" (from the Introduction).
The Novel of Ferrara brings together Bassani's six classics, fully
revised by the author at the end of his life.
Set before, during, and after the Second World War, these interlocking
stories present nuanced and unforgettable characters: the respected
doctor whose homosexuality is exposed by an exploitative youth; the
survivor of the Nazi death camps; the Jewish landowner, returned from
exile, to find himself utterly displaced; the schoolteacher whose
Communist idealism challenges a postwar generation.
Suffused with new life by acclaimed translator and poet Jamie
McKendrick, The Novel of Ferrara memorializes a city deeply informed
by the Jewish community to which the narrator belongs. This seminal work
seals Bassani's indomitable reputation.