Sullaluna and Centro Primo Levi invite you to join a book club discussion of The Trunk, a novella by Alberto Vigevani (translated by Will Schutt) on May 8th at 6:30 pm. RSVP at Sullaluna.
Sullaluna, is an independent bookshop, Italian bistro, and cultural space in the West Village featuring classic drinks and a menu of mainly vegetarian and vegan dishes.
Alberto Vigevani (1918-1999) was a prominent man of letters in 20th-century Italy, a fiction writer and poet as well as a publisher and antiquarian book dealer. Highly autobiographical like much of his work, The Trunk is Vigevani’s first book to be translated into English. The book is a lyrical and poignant portrait of a Jewish family in the second decade of the Fascist dictatorship. When the novel opens, the narrator’s memories are sparked by a wedding gift from his wife’s aunt and uncle: a marvelous trunk. The book becomes an attempt to understand the unfathomable and to write a history that gives the dead a kind of immortality their murderers sought to deny them.
The discussion will be led by Mike Levine, an independent editor and former acquisitions editor at Northwestern University Press. Since 2000, he has taught literature seminars in several continuing education programs, most recently at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn.
You can purchase a copy of The Trunk here or pick it up at Sullaluna, 41 Carmine Street.
