Paris: French publishers rediscover the Italian 20th century

If French publishing has always paid special attention to Italian books (as the numbers of translations attest: around 500 in 2023), recently there has been a lively return of interest in the great authors of the 20th century. Proof of this is provided not only by the titles that have recently appeared with publishers who, to a greater or lesser extent, are traditionally attentive to the Italian literature of the last century (think of the Cahiers de l’Hôtel de Galliffet, which has recently released unpublished texts by Romano Bilenchi, Giorgio Caproni, Italo Calvino, Giorgio Bassani; of the Éditions de la Conférence, which has just put out the complete edition of Piero Calamandrei‘s Diario; of Nous, which has enriched its already important catalogue with a collection of short stories by Leonardo Sciascia, Le feu dans la mer; of  Verdier, faithful publisher of the works of Giani Stuparich, which this year is presenting Un anno di scuola (Une année d’école) in bookshops; of La Fosse aux Ours, which is inviting readers to rediscover a book by Lorenzo Viani, Le chiavi nel pozzo (La clé dans le puits); of Cambourakis, which has reprinted Appunti partigiani (La louve et le partisan) by Beppe Fenoglio; of Ypsilon, which has released a new translation of Natalia Ginzburg’s Mai devi domandarmi (Never Ask Me) and the first translation of Diario ottuso (Obtuse Diary), Amelia Rosselli’s only book in prose), but also books that, from different perspectives, put great writers of the last century in the limelight: from the extraordinary Le célibataire absolu by Philippe Bordas (Gallimard), a hors-norme book, not so much a biography in the proper sense of the term, as the account of a devouring passion for a writer, Carlo Emilio Gadda, whom French culture has always had difficulty metabolising; to the very recent Hôtel Roma (Gallimard), in which Pierre Adrian, traces the existential and literary itinerary of Cesare Pavese. Within the framework of this renewed interest in the Italian 20th century, there are also important rediscoveries, such as that of Libero Bigiaretti, an author who is almost forgotten in Italy and of whom L’Arbre vengeur courageously proposes a key title such as Uccidi o muori (Tuer ou mourir ) in Jean-Pierre Pisetta‘s translation. As for Goliarda Sapienza, whose success in Italy was fostered precisely by the great resonance that her masterpiece, L’arte della gioia, received in France, this year Le Tripode propose a wide selection of her correspondence, from 1950 to 1996, the year of her death (Miroirs du temps). A monographic issue of the prestigious review Critique is dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini: edited by Martin Rueff, it includes Pasolinian texts previously unpublished in France and contributions by Italian and French critics, from René de Ceccatty to Gianluigi Simonetti. Worthy of special mention is the exceptional feat of Monique Baccelli and Antonio Werli, translators of one of the most linguistically difficult books of the Italian 20th century: Horcynus Orca by Stefano d’Arrigo (Éditions Le Nouvel Attila). As for the year 2025, the Cahiers de l’Hôtel de Galliffet announce unpublished titles by Rocco Scotellaro, Giovanni Testori, Pier Paolo Pasolini… For French publishers, in short, the Italian Novecento is a territory that may yet hold many surprises in store.