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Maja Pflug. Natalia Ginzburg: Arditamente timida, una biografia. Barbara Griffini, tr. Milan. La Tartaruga. 1997. 183 pages, ill. L.28,000. ISBN 88-7738-267-8. Maja Pflug's biography of Natalia Ginzburg appeared first in Germany in 1995 and was published only two years later in its Italian translation by Barbara Griffini. What is amazing about the work, which covers both biographical and literary material, is how well this young German author has been able to capture the unique quality of Natalia Ginzburg's voice, a voice that always rang true and pitch-perfect in its plain, paratactic, endemic lament.
Although there are no new major biographical revelations in the text, the author continually surprises the reader with wonderful tidbits of information. For example, while it is well known that Natalia Levi was born in Palermo, where her famous father was teaching medicine at the university, the day she chose to...