Natalia Ginzburg's The City and the House (1985) Trans. Dick Davis This was Natalia Ginzburg's last published book, an epistolary work, which contains letters sent by a handful of Italian men and women who are struggling to understand their attachments to (and distances from) one another, those in
You've been filled with talk of letters since my Dear Autumn letter on the Equinox. It all began with one of my favourite collections of letters, written between two friends: Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964 The Story of a Remarkable Friendship (Ed. Martha Freeman,
Did you even know about these? The first was written by J.R.R. Tolkien to his children in 1920, and the collection was edited by Baillie Tolkien. (The last one, too, appears in the collection, although it's just a sampling of the oeuvre.) I discovered it this past autumn,
Rosy Thornton's More Than Love Letters (2006) Headline, 2007 "Don’t you think it would be sad if nobody ever wrote each other love letters any more?" The genesis of Rosy Thornton's debut novel could well have been that statement. Of course it's a character -- not the author
What a cozy little volume to read in December. Based around the series of annual letters written by the women of one family, this is not a plot-driven chronicle. It's a meditative, quiet collection of updates on everyday family life. You know, the Christmas Letter. As the author indicates in
