As Penguin publishes its new collection of Italian short stories, we are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, who curated the collection and has translated a number of stories within it. In conversation with Adam Thirlwell, she discusses Italian literature, the process of translation, her own award-winning novels and the experience of working across multiple languages and cultures. In partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute.

Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of four works of fiction in English: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. Her last book In Other Words was written in Italian and describes the process of learning to express oneself in another language.

Adam Thirlwell is the author of three novels, Politics, The Escape and Lurid & Cute; a novella, Kapow!; and Miss Herbert, an essay-book on translation which won a Somerset Maugham Award; and a compendium of translations edited for McSweeney’s. He has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy's vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century, including Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries.

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Tickets

London Library Member: £12

Non-Member: £18