Evening Descends Upon The Hills

A stunning classic set in Italy's most vibrant and turbulent metropolis - Naples - in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. These lively and superbly written stories helped inspire Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. Ortese's work was also championed by Italo Calvino, who was her Italian editor. The stories and reportage collected in this volume form a powerful portrait of ordinary lives, both high and low, family dramas, love affairs, and struggles to pay the rent, set against the crumbling courtyards of the city itself, and the dramatic landscape of Naples Bay. This classic is exquisitely rendered in English by Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee, two of the leading translators working from Italian today. Included in the collection is 'A Pair of Eyeglasses', one of the most widely praised Italian short stories of the last century.

'As for Naples, today I feel drawn above all by Anna Maria Ortese' -- Elena Ferrante

'Anna Maria Ortese was the last great writer of the generation that produced Italo Calvino and Primo Levi. Today, few critics would disagree with the poet Andrea Zanzotto, who rates her as 'one of the most important Italian women writers of this century.'' -- Independent

'One of the most important Italian women writers of this century' -- Andrea Zanzotto

'Anna Maria Ortese is a writer of exceptional prowess and force. The stories collected in this volume, which reverberate with Chekhovian energy and melancholy, are revered in Italy by writers and readers alike. Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee reward us with a fresh and scrupulous translation' -- Jhumpa Lahiri

'This remarkable city portrait, both phantasmagorical and harshly realistic, conveys Naples in all its shabbiness and splendor. Naples appears as both a monster and an immense waiting room, whose inhabitants are caught between resignation and unquenchable resilience. Beautifully translated, this lyrical gem has been rescued from the vast storehouse of superior foreign literature previously ignored by a provincial American public' --Phillip Lopate

'This short collection, so full of arresting images and startling observations, is a portrait of an author who found in a damaged city her perfect muse' -- Daily Telegraph

'In Ortese's insistence in seeing the truth in her surroundings... it's easy to understand how she inspired Elena Ferrante' -- Country Life

'Will satisfy those looking to fill the Ferrante-shaped hole in their lives... luminous prose' -- Tatler, Best Beach Reads

'A masterpiece of documentary realism... brilliantly captures her powerful visions of Naples in exquisite English' -- Times Literary Supplement

'She is a writer full of sharp angles... every word and image cannot but strike a vital, deep, intimate chord' -- The Eurolink Network

'A portrait of post-war Naples by one of Italy's most acclaimed writers. The collected stories inspired Elena Ferrante's more recent Neopolitan novels' -- The Gloss (Irish Times

'Required reading for Ferrante fans... a powerful and raw journey through the intimacies of human relationships' -- The Pool

'Follow [Ortese] as though on a pilgrimage; she will transport you to a world where language and narrative can reclaim their critical urgency and value' -- Bookanista

'Truly wonderful, evocative and thought provoking. Reading Ortese is quite an experience' -- Nudge Books

'Elena Ferrante has cited Ortese as one of her greatest influences, and the connections are obvious in [these stories], which infuse a grimy, chaotic Naples with unsentimental menace rather than romantic mystique. Ortese gathers concrete details about the realities of poverty, and, like Ferrante, delineates moments of status tension with blunt accuracy' -- New Yorker

'Required reading for Ferrante fans' --Kirkus Reviews

'Ortese's people are all in primary colors, so vivid that they jump off the page... An example of prose that has lasted and will continue to do so' --The Arts Fuse

'Gives an essential glimpse into the origins of Ferrante's work ... A mesmerizing companion to Ferrante's Neapolitan project as well as a daring work of both social criticism and narrative inventiveness that stands, toweringly, on its own' -- Serallion

'An astonishing descent into the underworld ... A modern artist has rarely rendered so intensely the spectrality of all things' --La Repubblica