Title:: [[The Dry Heart]] Authors:: [[Natalia Ginzburg]] Tags:: #fiction #translatedfiction Read:: [[2025-07-20]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/p/DMVSG_mOjpQ/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[New Directions]], 2019, translated by Frances Frenaye - Original Copyright:: 1947 - Pages:: 88 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-dry-heart-natalia-ginzburg/12421012?ean=9780811228787&next=t ## Annotations A tightly written, intense, sad, and tragic novella that begins with the ending.  Ginzburg’s unnamed narrator coolly describes a marriage seemingly doomed from the start. It’s no spoiler to say that she kills her husband with a “shot between the eyes,” and while her story is an explanation of her actions, it falls short of a justification (at least to me). Neither she nor her husband are innocent in the breakdown of the marriage, though fair to say he carries more blame. Ultimately, her actions speak to a deeper unease which she transferred to her marriage.  Really enjoyed this. Translated from the Italian by Frances Frenaye.