"(prompt: "The book that changed my life") I was well into my 30s when I read The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg and as soon as I began I felt myself deeply connected. It isn’t that it’s the greatest book in the world, but for me it was vital. I felt she was showing me the type of writer I had it in me to be. One of the essays – “My Vocation” – really hit the nail on the head. I identified profoundly with the way in which Ginzburg traced her own development as a nonfiction writer. It made me realise that it was only through this kind of writing I could employ my own storytelling gifts. I reread it irregularly but quite a lot, and I’m always amazed by what she is able to accomplish with the small personal essay."
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Novelists from ItalyEssayists from ItalyWomen authorsPlaywrights from ItalyShort story writers from Italy
Original Language: English
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Vivian Gornick "Books That Made Me" (2021)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Natalia_Ginzburg
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Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg (née Levi; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an author who lived in Italy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, which often explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. For a time in the 1930s she belonged to the Italian Communist Party and in 1983 she was elected to Parliament from Rome as an independent politician.
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