2025 Italian Prose in Translation Award

The Unforgivable by Cristina Campo, translated by Alex Andriesse, finally gives English-language readers access to an important voice of the postwar period in Italy. An essayist, poet, and translator of notable British and American authors, Campo presents a style informed by both a modernist sensibility and a deeply spiritual approach to the practice of writing. This volume, translated with a deft touch that brings the text fully to life, brings together Campo’s two collections of essays (Fairy Tale and Mystery and The Flute and the Carpet). The translation admits the reader into the author’s delightfully unique mind as she considers an eclectic range of themes and writers that span myriad eras and genres within Western literature.