When Francesca Marciano introduced her new collection of stories Isola grande, isola piccola (The Other Language in English) few people in the audience at the Teatro Bibiena were aware that her book was originally written in English, and then translated in Italian shortly after it had been published in the United States.

(caricamento...)

When asked by Stas’ Gawronski why an Italian author would books directly in English, the answer for Marciano was simple. “I’ve been living abroad for almost half of my life, I started writing books there and at that point writing in Italian would have been translating English thoughts I had in my mind.”

The themes of travel and the exploration of new horizons is also a central to her book, one that connects every individual story. The protagonists in each of her tales are always travellers who end up living somewhere different from where they were born, speaking a variety of languages and crossing paths with people from different walks of life.

Marciano is aware of the effects that travelling can have on a person and, responding to a question from a member of the audience who wonders if the author has any regrets about moving on and leaving people and places behind, she says, “I bring everything with me, travellers and people who live this life know they move on because there’s always an ongoing process of growth, and besides that, I don’t like to complain. It’s so much better to be optimistic.”