Voices in the Evening

By: Natalia Ginzburg

Narrated by: Rosie Jones

From one of Italy’s greatest writers, a stunning novel “filled with shimmering, risky, darting observation” (Colm Tóibín)

After WWII, a small Italian town struggles to emerge from under the thumb of Fascism. With wit, tenderness, and irony, Elsa, the novel’s narrator, weaves a rich tapestry of provincial Italian life: two generations of neighbors and relatives, their gossip and shattered dreams, their heartbreaks and struggles to find happiness. Elsa wants to imagine a future for herself, free from the expectations and burdens of her town’s history, but the weight of the past will always prove unbearable, insistently posing the question: “Why has everything been ruined?”

©1961, 1971, 1984, 1998, 2003, 2013 & 2015; 1963; and 2019 Giulio Einaudi Editore SpA, Torino; D. M. Low; and Colm Tóibín (P)2021 New Directions Publishing Corp.

A Great post-war writer

Natalia Ginzberg is quite an amazing writer. I would not start with this short fiction as a first read of her, but it does not disappoint.