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Claudia Durastanti is the author of four critically acclaimed novels. Strangers I Know (La straniera) has been translated into 18 languages and was shortlisted in 2019 for the Premio Strega, Italy's most prestigious literary prize. A former Italian Fellow in Literature at the American Academy of Rome, Durastanti is also one of the founders of the Italian Literature Festival in London. She writes for several literary supplements and sits on the board of the Turin Book Fair. She is the Italian translator of Joshua Cohen, Donna Haraway, Ocean Vuong and the most recent edition of The Great Gatsby. Elizabeth Harris is a literary translator of contemporary Italian fiction, including novels and story collections by Mario Rigoni Stern, Giulio Mozzi, Antonio Tabucchi, Andrea Bajani and Claudia Durastanti. For her translations of Tabucchi, she has received the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, an NEA Translation Fellowship, the Italian Prose in Translation Award and the National Translation Award for Prose.
'Formally innovative and emotionally complex, this novel explores themes of communication, family, and belonging with exceptional insight. Durastanti, celebrated in Italy for her intelligent voice and her hybrid perspective, speaks to all who are outside and in between. Strangers I Know, in a bracing translation by Elizabeth Harris, is stunning.' * Jhumpa Lahiri * 'Brave and deeply felt...Here the novel is not only a medium of illumination, but also a buoy cast into the dark waters of memory, imagination, and boldly embodied questions. In other words, it is my favorite kind of writing, the kind that not only tells of the world-but burrows through it, alive.' * Ocean Vuong * 'Claudia Durastanti's writing is lyrical and sharp, underpinned with a searching gaze that turns the everyday into something darkly beautiful. Every page feels totally, absorbingly, alive.' * Sophie Mackintosh * 'Halfway between Natalia Ginzburg and Joan Didion, Durastanti's [Strangers I Know] is her Family Lexicon.' * L'Independente * 'Part novel, part memoir, it fascinates with its hybrid character and its subtle style.' * Esquire (Italy) * 'Playful, looping, atmospheric and funny, Strangers I Know is a singular achievement, one of those rare books that expanded my understanding of what a novel can do. Claudia Durastanti is an absolutely thrilling writer.' * Lauren Groff * 'A fiercely inventive, lyrical journey into the heart, and into the cultures of America, Italy and England. Durastanti's singular voice and the intensity of her honesty stayed with me. I've never read or heard anything like this book.' * Krys Lee * 'A shape-shifting work straddling the boundaries of genre...Fans of Jenny Offill and Rachel Cusk will enjoy this unusual work of personal mythology.' * Kirkus Reviews * 'Insightful and complex...an enjoyable and distinctive bildungsroman.' * Publishers Weekly * 'Strangers I Know is a flame held up to the inexpressible self.' * Ploughshares * 'A tremendous work...Durastanti's genre-defying novel delivers profound insights into the connections between self, language, art and disability.' * Shelf Awareness (starred review) * 'Strangers I Know is alive with intensely original storytelling while packing an emotional punch.' * Happy Mag *
