Jenny McPhee is a writer and translator from New Jersey. Her debut novel, The Center of Things, was a New York Times Notable Book. She has published two other novels, No Ordinary Matter and A Man of No Moon, the latter of which was named a Book Sense Notable Book. She also co-authored Girls: Ordinary Girls and Their Extraordinary Pursuits with her sisters Martha and Laura. McPhee has translated Natural Histories, A Flaw of Form, and A Tranquil Star by Primo Levi; ZIBALDONE: The Notebooks of Leopardi by the renowned Italian lyric poet Giacomo Leopardi; and Canone Inverso by Paolo Maurensig, among others. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Brooklyn Review, Glamour, Santa Monica Review, and elsewhere. McPhee currently lives in New York.
Natalia Ginzburg was a renowned Italian writer of stories that explored fascist politics and intricate family relationships, considered one of the greatest female writers in postwar Italy. She was awarded the 1963 Strega Prize, one of Italy’s greatest literary awards, for Lessico Famigliare; she was also awarded the 1984 Bagutta Prize, another celebrated literary award, for La famiglia Manzoni. Her other novels include Valentino, Le voci della sera, Le piccole virtù, Mai devi domandarmi, and Vita Immaginaria, among others. In 1991, the year she died, she was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
