A Music Behind the Wall: Selected Stories, Vol. 2

Here is the second volume of stories by the celebrated visionary author of The Iguana. One of the original Italian "magical realists," Anna Maria Ortese published startlingly original fiction for sixty years, and before her death on March 9, 1998 had achieved recognition as one of Italy's greatest authors of the 20th century. This volume features nine stories, short and long, and an autobiographical essay on her career, her craft, and her vision of the world. Several of these stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Third Coast, Alea, Cups, and Archipelago.org. In a review-essay in the Los Angeles Times, Katherine McNamara declared: "[Ortese's] is a very hard vision. Few writers are willing, let alone able, to face it without self-defense. In many ways, Ortese is a nineteenth century writer. You hear echoes of her beloved Poe and Stevenson, and of Knut Hamsun; you may be reminded, too, of Machado de Asis and our contemporary, Miroslav Holub."