Journeys, Memories, and Miracles: Italian Short Stories
Guest host Hope Davis presents a program of Italian short fiction selected by the novelist and short-story writer Jhumpa Lahiri. The stories were drawn from The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, which Lahiri edited. They range from the comic to the fantastical. In Leonardo Sciascia’s “The Long Voyage,” hopeful peasants try to make it to a mysterious place called “Trenton.” The reader is John Turturro. A couple hopes to restore pre-World War II elegance in “Invitation to Dinner,” by Alba de Cespedes, read by Dawn Akemi Saito. And there’s heat, sand, water, and magical realism on offer in Massimo Bontempelli’s “The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty, read by Hugh Dancy.