![]() ![]() ![]() Arturo grows up largely on his own, in the spacious, unkempt Casa dei Guaglioni, or the Boys' House. His mother died while giving birth to him, and his father, Wilhelm, leaves the island for weeks at a time. Set on the small island of Procida, in the Bay of Naples, the story is a fictional memoir in which Arturo, the central character, recounts the years of his adolescence. Ann Goldstein's new version, which has merits of a different kind, is the first to appear since then. It soon attracted the attention of Isabel Quigly, whose remarkably fluid translation, Arturo 's Island, appeared in 1959. L'isola di Arturo, however, was an inspired work of fiction. Once, he suggested, it was given to a writer who needed the money for his daughter's wedding. Her husband, Alberto Moravia, who had won the prize in 1952, said in an interview that it had not always been decided on fairly. ![]() With the publication of L'isola di Arturo in 1957, Elsa Morante became the first woman to be awarded the Premio Strega, Italy's most coveted literary prize. ![]()
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