Walking and Living Her Writing

“When I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers.” – Natalia Ginzburg

       Ginzburg, who was born on July 14, 1916, was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships and politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II.   The author of novels, short stories and essays, she won numerous awards including the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize in her native Italy. 

Best known for her novels Voices in the Evening and Family Sayings (also published as The Things We Used To Say), Ginzburg also wrote a number of plays, including the much performed The Advertisement and A Town By The Sea.

Ginzburg got involved in politics in her later years and was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1983 (she died in 1991).  Many of her essays from that time focused on the interdependence of countries as the world grew smaller from technological advancements.

“Today, as never before,” she wrote shortly before her death,  “the fates of men are so intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody.”

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