> Skip to content
  • Published: 15 August 2017
  • ISBN: 9780141192130
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $27.99

Behind the Door



A new translation of Bassani's moving novel of childhood friendship and the unexpected loss of innocence

The years lived since then have not, in the end, been of any use: I haven't managed to remedy the suffering which has remained there like a hidden wound, secretly bleeding.
In the fourth book of the Romanzo di Ferrara cycle, Bassani paints a moving portrait of a 1930s childhood in which even the familiar classroom and playground dramas begin to reflect the sinister forces at work in fascist Italy. This powerful tale of friendship and rivalry in the face of the ever encroaching spectre of adulthood adds yet another intricate thread to Bassani's rich tapestry of his native city, Ferrara.

  • Published: 15 August 2017
  • ISBN: 9780141192130
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $27.99

Also by Giorgio Bassani

See all

Praise for Behind the Door

Giorgio Bassani is one of the great witnesses of this century, and one of its great artists

Guardian

Powerful new translations . . . Bassani began as a poet, and McKendrick's redelivery of this taut uncompromising fiction reveals resonance and generosity

Ali Smith

No one else writes about time like this. Bassani is deeply unsettling and yet a joy to read.

David Herman, Jewish Chronicle