A combination of new and previously published translations of short stories and novel-extracts, this selection represents what King calls ‘mature writers of the 1980s’. Among the heavyweights of Italian female art-fiction such as Anna Maria Ortese, Grazia Deledda and Elsa Morante and the stalwarts of more populist writing such as Dacia Maraini and Giuliana Morandini sparkle some lesser-known names such as Geda Jacolutti and Marina Mizzau. This anthology is a very valuable sampler of what was being written up to the time of publication in 1989, issued by the Italica Press, an excellent small publisher specialising in Italica.

‘At that time refined and vampish men were the fashion and our French teacher interpreted the type with a lavish style and a little disengagé. In class the girls watched him in fascination, madness. I observed the desk and the actor who rested his moist, pseudo-distracted look upon us from the platform and, annoyed at seeing how the others admired him, I found it easier to play the insolent student. He spoke slowly, in a nasal voice, putting out his half-smoked cigarette before beginning to read a poet, and from time to time interrupting his reading to make some ironic or sentimental comment. The girls gazed at his eyes and hair and whispered «a mouth to bite» among themselves, according to the manner of that age. I chose the moment of highest enchantment to act: I let a dictionary crash to the floor with a calculated clatter and responded with dry provocation to the rebuke from the desk.’ p59 The French Teacher Geda Jacolutti