Natalia Ginzburg was born in Palermo one hundred years ago, on 14 July 1916. Next 5 July, the Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) in Berlin will pay a tribute to one of the most important authors of Italian 20th Century literature, whose work includes novels, short stories, plays and essays, excerpts of which will be read by film and theatre star Mechthild Großmann. The event, scheduled at 7 p.m. in the courtyard of the Italian Embassy or, in case of bad weather, inside the IIC, will open with remarks by Carlo Ginzburg (Natalia’s son and an eminent historian and essayist) and with an introduction by Susanne Schüssler. Having grown up among Turin’s anti-fascist intelligentsia, Natalia Ginzburg made her literary debut in 1942 with a novelette, “La strada che va in città” which, for racial reasons, she published under the pseudonym of Alessandra Tornimparte. She later published other novelettes and a few novels (“Tutti i nostri ieri”, 1952; “Caro Michele”, 1973; “La città e la casa”, 1984), two books half-way between an essay form and an autobiography (“Le piccole virtù”, 1962; “Family Sayings” – “Lessico famigliare”- 1963) and a book combining the essay form and a novel (“La famiglia Manzoni”, 1983). Natalia Ginzburg was also a playwright (“I Married You for Fun” – “Ti ho sposato per allegria” – “The Advertisement – “L’inserzione” – “La segretaria”, “Paese di mare”, etc., which were united in the volumes “Ti ho sposato per allegria e altre commedie”, 1966, and “Paese di mare”, 1973). In 2016 “Un’assenza. Racconti, memorie, cronache 1933-1988”, a collection of mostly unpublished texts edited by Domenico Scarpa, was published by Einaudi to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth.
